Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)

I welcome the amendment and accept what the Minister has said on the EU legislation that could facilitate it. It would be great if it was facilitated. I agree with what has been said on apprenticeships. The further and higher education committee has spoken of it at length in recent months. Wonderful witnesses have come in and told us the stories of how amazing they have to be to motivate themselves, get involved with an employer and become an apprentice, and of the hurdles they face to get there. It is in a way easier to apply for a third level college course because you just go on the CAO and apply for whatever level is in question.

I know I am slightly going off the general topic here, but I would love if people could log on and be able to apply for apprenticeships in the same way that they apply for a CAO place. I think the value of apprenticeships is returning to the level it used to be a number of decades ago. The snobbery is slowly being eroded and people genuinely feel doing an apprenticeship is the fastest way to learn and earn and then be guaranteed a job at the end. I met so many young people who are in college and wondering what they are going to do afterwards. Some of them have degree and a postgraduate qualification but they do not know what to do yet. I have yet to meet an apprentice who wondered what they will do now. They are already working and able to travel with these amazing skills they have learned.

To go back to the issue of releasing funding from the National Training Fund, the challenges apprentices face are significant with regard to some structural issues, such as going to Donegal to finish off an electrical apprenticeship or going to Clare to do different apprenticeships. Those sorts of issues are very difficult. We have also heard recently from employers about how much money it costs to release chefs for training days. I would love to see this structure working and this funding coming back in to support these young people and learners, as well as the employers taking on apprentices and the colleges where they are going to do the learning, skills and theory part. We have a real possibility to do a lot with this fund. As others said earlier, I would love to see exactly where the money will go and what the plans are. We set out our stall a couple of weeks ago, and I would love to see a little bit more in this regard. Praise for apprentices is due but so is the infrastructure that goes around that.

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