Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I apologise, as I will not be able to stay for all of the debate. The Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, will be present for most of it. I will have to leave to attend a Cabinet committee.

I welcome the opportunity to update the House on important issues regarding apprenticeships and further education and training, FET. I am pleased we have the opportunity to explore these issues in the Dáil. These are areas on which we need to shine a light. They have a key role to play in our future economic and social well-being and meeting the skills needs of the country.

The Government’s ambition for apprenticeship and further and higher education is at the heart of its response to key economic, societal and environmental objectives and priorities. Success in building a strong and effective national apprenticeship system and ensuring the FET sector realises its full potential must be central to the delivery of key Government strategies. The far-seeing decision taken almost three years ago to establish a dedicated Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science with a strong mandate to focus, in particular, on skills, apprenticeships and FET was a key milestone in recognising their crucial role.

The recent national economic dialogue, NED, which took place two weeks ago, highlighted the importance of adopting a medium-term perspective to explore how best to ensure a sustainable future for all. It highlighted the need to respond to what the OECD’s recent review of Ireland’s skills system referred to as the mega-trends of digitisation, decarbonisation and demographic change. Apprenticeships and further education have unique roles to play in many ways in ensuring that we are not just reacting to challenges as they arise but, rather, energetically, proactively and strategically working to secure opportunities provided by the transformation of the labour force, economy and country, transformations that are now well under way and in many ways accelerating. Apprenticeships and further education are two signature examples of the approach being adopted and delivered in practice through the implementation of the action plan for apprenticeships and Future FET: Transforming Learning, the further education and training strategy.

A strong conclusion that draws from the three years I have had the privilege of being Minister is that the ground has shifted significantly in terms of the positive perception and positioning of apprenticeships and FET among students and learners, their families, employers and communities. I can see this in the data. More people than ever before are registering to become apprentices. Pathways are being developed between further education and higher education. There are now real opportunities to embed apprenticeships and FET not as something separate from our third level system but, rather, at the core of tertiary education. This is heartening. It reinforces my conviction that those strategies and plans are the right things to do. To deliver fully on the ambition for apprenticeship and FET, however, I share the assessment that no doubt will be offered in the House today, namely, that an awful lot more needs to be done.

In the time available to me, I wish to emphasise the progress we have made but also the progress that remains to be made and the imperative of building on it. I look forward to Deputies having the opportunity to outline their views, insights and suggestions as we advance in partnership to the achievement of the objectives we share for these sectors.

We have tried to place an unrelenting focus on the issue of apprenticeships. In 2022, record numbers of people registered. This year, we expect to do even better. I am pleased to tell the House that we are on course to have 9,000 newly-registered apprentices this year. This is a major achievement. Deputies may remember that we set a target of having 10,000 newly-registered apprentices each year by 2025.

I believe we are now running ahead of that target. It could be possible to hit that in 2024; certainly if we get 9,000 new apprentices registered this year. For many years, and maybe still a little bit today, there has sometimes been a snobbery or a perception around apprenticeships which we must all work together to absolutely call out and knock down. When people consider what an apprenticeship is, they often think of it as a traditional craft apprenticeship. This is a very important role. It is a vital role in terms of building houses, retrofitting homes, and meeting the needs we have in the country. However, apprenticeships are also more than just our craft and traditional apprenticeships. We now have about 67 apprenticeship programmes in Ireland. I am not sure how many people know you can do a PhD, which is a level 10, as an apprentice. You can do a masters or a degree in science in Ireland as an apprentice. There is no reason in the wide earthly world a nursing degree should not be done in Ireland as an apprentice. It is still the degree programme but provided in a way that works for someone who perhaps would not be able to go back to college for four years full-time but could do it the apprenticeships way where they are earning while also learning and getting that same qualification. People can do an apprenticeship in insurance, in retail and in hairdressing, and very soon they will be able to start a digital marketing apprenticeship working in the public service for Government Departments. The expansion of apprenticeship programmes has resulted in a significant increase in the number of people choosing this alternative form of third level that we wish to mainstream. We are on the road to achieving this. As I have already mentioned, we had a record number of people registering in 2022. This year, we will beat that record and we are on course to have 9,000 new apprentices.

I take the opportunity in this debate around apprenticeships to acknowledge recent developments and a very difficult and upsetting development at Tara Mines. The closure is, of course, extremely disappointing, painful and understandably very worrying for all involved. I am very conscious that there are 32 apprentices in Tara Mines who are affected by this as well. I would like to assure them and the House that my officials and colleagues in SOLAS, Louth and Meath Education and Training Board, LMETB, Enterprise Ireland and other employers are working together to support them so that they can complete their programmes. I have been given an assurance that those mechanisms will be put in place. It is a priority for me and I am sure for everyone in this House and I assure the apprentices in question that we are working to provide a solution for them as quickly as possible. I know LMETB has had individual engagement with apprentices to explore supports and options. The education of those apprentices will not be impacted or affected by this sudden closure and I really want to stress that today.

The establishment of a dedicated Department for further education has, I hope, ignited an important conversation about the role of apprentices. Apprenticeships are such an important part of our education system now. As I have said, we now have 67 apprenticeship programmes, ranging from a sports turf level 6 apprenticeship, which is the newest, to wind turbine maintenance, to mention just a few. Later this year, we will roll out three new farming apprenticeships. This is a really exciting development and a real vote of confidence in the future of farming and agriculture in Ireland. I also say very clearly that we are open for new programmes. I often meet people who say we could do with an apprenticeship in X or Y. To be really clear, the way apprenticeship works is that industry comes forward and partners with an education provider in going to the National Apprenticeship Office. Therefore, I say to any employer following this debate today, whether they are involved in apprenticeships and believe there is an opportunity for another apprenticeship, or if they would like to create an apprenticeship, we are open for business and would like to see more programmes. We have already seen a very significant increase.

When it comes to the issue of making our apprenticeship population more diverse, this is really important as well. The expanding range of opportunities available within apprenticeships, as well as changing work practices in traditional areas, have provided a step towards increasing opportunity for traditionally under-represented groups. Females have been significantly under-represented in apprenticeships, as have people with disabilities and those from minority communities. As of the end of May of this year, there are 1,837 female apprentices. This is up from 60 in 2016. There is no zero missing there; there were 60 female apprentices in 2016. The figure is also up from 665 at the end of 2019 and now represents 7% of the overall apprentice population. This figure is still very low and needs to be an awful lot higher, but we have seen that increase, and quite a significant increase in a short period of time, mainly due to the expansion of apprenticeships into new areas. Four financial services apprenticeships now have 54% female participation, as an example. Women also feature more strongly in the new apprenticeships in the hospitality, healthcare, property, sales, recruitment, biopharma and ICT sectors. However, it is also important to note that female representation in craft apprenticeship has more than doubled in the last three years. This is important progress but we need to do more. That is the reason I have introduced a new gender-based bursary of €2,666 for any apprenticeship employer who employs an apprentice in the minority gender on any national apprenticeship programme with greater than 80% representation of a single gender. I would really encourage employers to avail of that funding to help us to change the tide and create a more equal apprenticeship population.

If we are really serious about access to apprenticeships and equality, we have to recognise that for some people in Ireland who have not had a good experience with the education system, or perhaps have not had a traditional education in their family or their community, it is not enough to throw them into a full apprenticeship and wish them the best of luck. We need to put support structures around them. One of the best programmes I have seen running in the education and training space is a programme called access to apprenticeships. I am sure many Deputies are aware of it. I encourage those who are not to come across it. This is an opportunity that provides a bursary of €3,000 for participants, but it does an awful lot more than that. It actually gives people tasters in apprenticeship. It allows people to try out different sorts of apprenticeships and puts a support structure around them. There is nothing more rewarding than to attend a graduation of people who have come through the access to apprenticeship course and to hear how that apprenticeship programme has changed not only their lives but also the lives of their families and their communities, and has provided so much hope.

I want to address the issue of apprenticeship pay. I know this is an important issue that has been raised by colleagues. Indeed, I note the Private Members' motion from the Labour Party on this matter. I am aware people have been raising real concerns on this. I assure them that this is an area of significant concern and interest to me, given that apprentices are currently excluded from the provisions of the National Minimum Wage Act 2000. I recognise and acknowledge the importance of the legal instruments and industrial relations agreements in place which currently govern apprentice pay rates. However, the fundamental issue is that payment of sub-minimum rates of pay to some apprentices, in addition to the climate in which we are now living where there are serious cost-of-living challenges, runs the risk of undermining the case that apprenticeship is a valued option and could well have the effect of discouraging someone from taking up an apprenticeship. We cannot have a situation where somebody in the workplace feels they would be, and indeed on some occasions would be, financially worse off in the short term by moving to an apprenticeship programme. I acknowledge-----

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