Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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10. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the level of advertising of apprenticeship opportunities posted on the apprenticeship website; and the initiatives to get more sectoral organisations to get their members to advertise in this way. [36446/22]

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I begin by commending all involved in getting us close to 80 apprenticeships either approved or in the pipeline. How many posts on apprenticeships are actually being advertised on the website, because the real problem for people is finding a sponsor? Has the backing of associations been sought to up that number?

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this issue but also for the work he did in his time in the Department of Education to promote apprenticeships. It has helped us get to this place. As he will be aware, apprenticeship is a demand-driven, employer-led system that aims to develop the skills of an apprentice in order to meet the needs of industry and the labour market. In light of that employer-led model of apprenticeship, the level of apprenticeship opportunities and associated advertising for those roles in any particular sector are obviously based on the current demand that exists in that sector for apprentices. A key deliverable under the Action Plan for Apprenticeship, 2021 to 2025 is to increase this demand by addressing barriers to employer participation. In this context, I introduced an annual grant for employers who employ apprenticeships in one of the post-2016 apprenticeships and thereby extending financial support to all apprentice employers for the first time.

SOLAS has advised my Department that there are 66 open jobs currently advertised on the Generation Apprenticeship website. Nearly 1,000 jobs have been advertised since its launch in October 2020. A total of 2,881 employers have been set up on the apprenticeship jobs portal to date. There is a national campaign underway via the Generation Apprenticeship campaign to drive awareness of apprenticeship opportunities across a broad audience of stakeholders. I am pleased to say traffic on apprenticeship.iehas increased very significantly as a result of the changes we made to the CAO website. There have been over 30,000 click-throughs from the CAO website, which means more than 30,000 people went to the CAO site and then went directly to the apprenticeship website. Both campaigns promote a number of key initiatives under the Generation Apprenticeship banner. They are targeting the employer audience regarding the gender bursary and employer grant, as well as targeting students, parents and guidance counsellors regarding opportunities in apprenticeship.

Long story short, the Deputy is right. I am looking at how we can link some supports we provide to the public advertising of apprenticeships. There needs to be equity with people's ability to access information on this. We are also working very hard on public sector apprenticeships and we have a target of 750 public sector apprenticeships by 2025. That will increase the opportunity the Deputy refers to about the availability of apprenticeships in local areas.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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When we have an all-time shortage of staff, to hear just 66 apprenticeship posts are being advertised on apprenticeship.ieis bizarre. We have scarcities in most of the sectors, including hospitality, finance, engineering, logistics, ICT and biopharma. All these sectors are crying out for new talent. All of them have representatives of significant weight. Why are those bodies not being leaned upon to recognise that the learn-as-you-earn model offers a way to attract young people into these sectors with huge growth opportunities? Huge work has been done and I fully acknowledge that but we need to get these partners going beyond approving apprenticeships to offering a pool of opportunities. It is not the same going to the site if there are only 66 posts. There are something like 30,000 places on the CAO site. The contrast speaks for itself.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I do not disagree with the Deputy on the need for a much better and bigger job to be done on the central and public advertising of apprenticeship opportunities. That is part of the cultural shift that needs to take place. We have set up a National Apprenticeship Alliance and its job is to look at all of these areas. Now we as a State are providing financial incentives to all apprentice employers in the country, it is not unreasonable that in return we ask for things in terms of how these are advertised. That is a route I intend to pursue. However, I would not like, and I know the Deputy would not either, for a small number of advertisements on a website to suggest a lack of progress because we obviously saw the highest number of new apprentices ever registered last year, namely, 8,607. We had set a target of getting to 10,000 by 2025 and I am quite encouraged we are going to beat that target and get there earlier. We now have 65 apprenticeship programmes with 16 more being developed. We have a new national apprenticeship office being established with the TUs rolling out access to apprenticeship programmes and we have the changes to the CAO. However, I agree with the Deputy and will revert to him on this.

Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I ask that the public sector lead by example here. Apart from the ESB, which has traditionally been a pioneer in this area, there are no public sector bodies that are really putting their shoulders to the wheel. If the first central pooling place for apprentices to apply to came from the public sector as a single effort to put up on apprenticeship.iea range of opportunities, that would be a loud signal to others to follow suit.

David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael)
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Has the Minister's Department linked with the guidance councillors in second-level schools? Quite often they have links with universities, businesses and trades, as well as parents and students, to drive this on and publicise this whole apprenticeship area, which is quite exciting.

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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To respond to Deputy Stanton, yes I have. Indeed, some of the changes we have brought to the CAO website have been things the guidance councillors have been campaigning for over a decade so they are very much driving this and I am eager to work very closely with them.

Deputy Bruton is entirely right. The public sector needs to step up here. To be really clear, it has not done so. A public sector that employs around 300,000 taking on around 200 apprentices per year is offensive. It is offensive to me, offensive to the Government and offensive to mums and dads right across this country. Every local authority, Government Department and State agency should be doing it. What we are doing at the moment is we have a global figure of 750. We want 750 apprentices every year across the public sector by 2025. We are in the mapping exercise of that right now of going out to the local authority, asking where its skills needs are, where can it take on apprentices and how many. It is my intention to return to the Government in the autumn and map out how we get from here with in and around 200 per year to 750 per year. The local authorities will have a major part to play in that and yes, absolutely, that will be a big moment with a central depository, if you like, of public sector apprenticeships available to all our citizens. I will keep the Deputy informed on that.