David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I am very pleased to hear that because I feel there that is a risk they may actually morph into academia again, which would be a shame. Also, the Minister of State told me there are 65 programmes here and there are 342 in Germany. I acknowledge they are different systems and so forth but we probably have a long way to go and there is much potential.

I ask the Minister of State to comment on something I have been talking about for quite a bit, which is the local training initiatives as a pathway to apprenticeships. Would he agree with me that we need to look at the people working there and put in place a proper career structure? The turnover of staff is enormous due to lack of certainty into the future regarding employability, security and so on.

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