Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House to address this very important issue. In an ever-changing world where many of the jobs that will be available in future have not yet been created, the provision of further education and training is a complex albeit essential part of our planning for employment. Although we are creating 1,000 jobs per week, the numbers of people unemployed, particularly long-term unemployed, are still very high. For many people, training in new skills is necessary to give them the opportunity to get back into the workforce. Training is also necessary for those in employment to give them security into the future.

For these reasons, education and training for employment and life is now a lifelong process. The provision of this type of education and training is the responsibility of education and training boards, and the Bills which came through last year on this issue were among the most important legislative developments in the life of this Government. The Minister of State mentioned the review of apprenticeship training in Ireland undertaken by a group led by Mr. Kevin Duffy, chairman of the Labour Court, which made several recommendations. The Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Quinn, accepted the broad thrust of those and looked to examine them, and it is in that context that I will make a few points on the report.

One of the recommendations was that every apprentice should be employed under a contract of apprenticeship. That contract should be with the State rather than an employer. For example, we do not have a contract for education with employer schools for trainee teachers, and that raises the question of why we should have a contract of apprenticeship and with whom it is envisaged the contract would be. Providing for future school needs from an apprenticeship perspective is equal in importance to providing future educational needs for third level education, and surely both sets of students should be treated equally. If there is to be a contract, it should be with the State in both cases. We fund third level education, so we should fund further education and training similarly and equally.

Another recommendation is that all apprenticeship programmes should be reviewed and updated, with potential expansion of apprenticeships explored. These new areas should be identified by employers and it is correct for employers to be heavily consulted. Ultimate responsibility in this regard should be vested in the further education section of the Department of Education and Skills, with SOLAS reporting on that. In this regard, the ESRI should be in a position to predict and inform us of future skills requirements in an accurate fashion.

For example, one could ask how many carpenters, plumbers and electricians are needed in the building industry and the answer would probably be none. Efficient planning demonstrates that, in future, it is estimated a certain number of carpenters, plumbers and electricians will be needed to service needs and give those who might wish to work abroad the necessary skills. The ESRI should make recommendations to SOLAS in this regard, as individual industries are more likely to focus on immediate needs. Additionally, it might be useful to have a quota system in place to regulate the numbers of skilled tradespersons for each sector and prevent oversupply. This may be similar to the cap system for further education and training or post-leaving certificate places. These should be divided among different colleges and training centres in the 16 education and training boards rather than concentrating on selected areas. It is estimated that 500 apprentice plasterers are needed to service future needs and I would encourage those places to be divided among the different education and training board areas, offering access to the trade nationally while training is offered locally. This can be repeated with other skills.

The setting up of education and training boards is a significant step forward and should lead to much greater expertise and efficiency in the delivery of much-needed skills for the students involved with the jobs market. I hope this will lead to less duplication of courses. The service of both FÁS and the old vocational education committees will be bigger and better under the new banner of education and training boards. I have yet to be convinced that we have gone far enough in recalibrating the training centres which were under the FÁS domain and are now the responsibility of the education and training boards within which they reside. There are five education and training board areas that have no training centres, including Cavan-Monaghan, Carlow-Kilkenny, Tipperary, Laois-Offaly and Kildare-Wicklow. These areas will be served under some form of service level agreement or memorandum of understanding with other education and training boards. I am not convinced this is the safest or best approach, and we should oversee the decommissioning of FÁS just once and correctly.