Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The normal waiting times for off-the-job training in the education and training boards range from three to six months. Any apprentices waiting longer than six months for phase 2 training are part of the phase 2 backlog and considered to be waiting overlong for training. In July 2023, 6,166 apprentices were waiting six months or longer. In August 2024, that figure had dropped to 2,484. We are doing everything we can to try to address the backlog. We launched a recruitment campaign across several media channels in November 2023. The campaign used a centralised National Apprenticeship Office platform for applications and added to that a new advanced block approval process for the posters put in place. The approval process was delivered through our Department and the Department of Education. The National Apprenticeship Office allocated €149,000 for a recruitment advertising campaign. To date, more than 166 instructor posts have been sanctioned and more than 76 have been filled.

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