David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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12. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will list the uptake of apprenticeships by trade, sector and by county for each of the years from 2020 to 2022, to date, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [36681/22]

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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This question relates to apprenticeships. I am curious to know the uptake of apprenticeships by trade, sector and county in recent years. What are the projections for now on?

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. A key objective of the action plan for apprenticeships for 2021 to 2025 is to ensure that the apprenticeship system will increase its contribution to meeting Ireland's skills and human capital requirements by delivering on a target of 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per annum by 2025. At the end of June, there had been 3,057 apprentice registrations, made up of 2,667 craft and 390 consortia-led registrations.

In 2021, a record 8,607 new apprentices were registered in the apprenticeship system. This was an increase of nearly 40% compared to 2019, which was the last normal year of operations prior to the pandemic. There were a total of 5,326 registrations in 2020, with registrations severely impacted by the pandemic and the shutdown of education and training facilities.

The bulk of apprenticeship take-up for craft apprentices in recent years has been focused on the construction sector, with electrical, plumbing, carpentry and joinery being the most popular craft programmes in terms of registrations.

So far this year, the software developer associate and accounting technician programmes have seen the highest registrations for consortia-led apprenticeships. The bar manager apprenticeship, officially launched in May this year, has also seen very strong engagement with 38 apprentices registered. This level of take-up is particularly welcome given skills shortages in hospitality.

SOLAS has advised that apprentice registrations are recorded by the employer in each education and training board, ETB, region rather than on a county basis. Last year, the highest number of apprentice registrations were to Dublin and Dún Laoghaire ETB, Cork ETB and Louth-Meath ETB. A full table of the registration figures by programme and by ETB region for the period 2020 to 2022 to date is being prepared and will be sent separately to the Deputy as soon as possible.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State and the Minister for the work they and their Department are doing in this area. How many recognised trades and professions at present have apprenticeships? The figure in Germany is almost 350. How many are there here? If the Minister of State does not have that information, he might get it to me.

Will the Minister of State also comment on the role of the technological universities and their importance in this area? Will he tell me how he is ensuring they will not morph into normal universities? Is there a risk that might happen? It is important to maintain a separation and retain the identity of technological universities, especially where apprentices are concerned.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. There are currently 65 apprenticeship programmes on offer, 25 of which are craft programmes. Some 40 programmes have been introduced since 2016 and eight new programmes were launched over the period of 2020 to 2021, despite the pandemic. Those programmes relate to arboriculture, equipment systems engineering, healthcare assistance, principal engineering, professional doctorates, recruitment sales executives, scaffolding and supply chain associates.

The bar manager apprenticeship was launched earlier this year, as well as the wind turbine maintenance apprenticeship. Most recently, an apprenticeship in transport operations and commercial driving was also launched.

On the Deputy’s query on the technological universities, they will absolutely integral to the continuing work of expanding and rolling out our apprenticeship programmes and training apprentices. Even though they have now gained technological university status, much of the ethos that they gained from their former iterations as regional technical colleges will absolutely exist into the future to ensure the credibility of our apprenticeship programmes.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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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.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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I wish to raise the issue of workforce planning and how we are obviously lacking in certain skill sets. What is the input from the regional skills framework and from departmental heads in relation to filling those spaces? If we are talking about add-on courses for retrofit and whatever, could we look at apprenticeships from a point of view of fitting them into the actual base apprenticeship, be that in some of the regular skill sets of plumbing, electrical work or whatever else?

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I do not think we can talk about apprentices without talking about the current state of apprentices and those who are in the system at the moment are experiencing. In our recent survey results, 84% of apprentices told us that they had to cut down on essentials such as buying groceries or turning the heat on. Some 72% said they had to take out debts in starting the apprenticeship. Some 96% felt that the Government was not doing enough to help them around the cost-of-living crisis. What plans are in place to look at the immediate cost-of-living crisis and the impact on apprentices to ensure that they stay within the system? It is fine that they are going into apprenticeships but we need them to stay there and thrive within it.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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In response to Deputy Stanton, he raised the local training initiatives previously and the points that he raised are quite valid. That is something that we flagged to the National Apprenticeship Office and its new director in terms of the work she is doing. I am confident that the issues the Deputy is flagging is an area she is looking at.

On the manpower planning and regional skills, we have, as the Deputy will know, a network of regional skills managers. We have nine regional skills managers around the country who are linked in to employers and industry in their functional areas. It as a very important aspect in terms of informing us, SOLAS, the education and training boards, ETBs, and the Department on policy direction. Similarly, I think the Deputy mentioned this in his question on upskilling, in terms of the existing people who are involved and are qualified and working in, for example, the construction areas, our network of nearly zero energy buildings, NZEB, centres is out there. They are being rolled out. They are short courses to upskill people who are already qualified and in the workplace.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I hope the Minister of State can take on board some of the things I said.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Yes.