Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for selecting this matter and the Minister of State, Deputy Joe O'Brien, for making himself available to take it. As education spokesperson for Fianna Fáil, I am very proud of my party's history in the education sphere over the years, including this current period in office. It has certainly been a transformative period despite the many challenges of Covid. We pushed for the establishment of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. We reformed the leaving certificate. We are providing free schoolbooks to all primary school pupils. We have a ten year literacy, numeracy and digital literacy strategy. We have widened and improved Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, which is something I have long advocated. We have expanded the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme, DEIS. One in four students is now availing of the programme. We have also reduced the pupil-teacher ratio to its lowest ever.

As a party, we have also championed the launch of a five year action plan for apprenticeships, and this action plan aims to expand the types of programme available and increase the number of apprenticeships to 10,000 by 2025. I note that it is great to see a lot more women taking up apprenticeships. Approximately five years ago, only 2% of those taking up apprenticeships were women, but that has greatly improved since. This plan will work to ensure equity of access, to ensure under-represented groups are able to avail of apprenticeships, by creating simplified routes to entry and improved flexibility within the system. The fact there is additional support for those within the apprenticeship system, in particular for employers to encourage them to support and to take on apprenticeships through financial assistance and other mechanisms, is really important. This is a real step change in terms of public policy around apprenticeships and I particularly commend the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, on his work to date on this issue within his higher education brief. This strategy brings all apprenticeships together under one roof in a new National Apprenticeship Office.

I fully support the expanded offerings. We need to ensure that we broaden what we mean by education, and that we recognise the needs of the job market and of students. We have skill gaps in our workforce, of that there is no doubt, and apprenticeships are a key element in filling many of those. We have invested heavily in apprenticeships, and that is absolutely the right decision. However, I have had a number of cases recently where the academic elements of certain courses have yet to be confirmed or to take place. I am going to give one particular example, so let us call this young man, John. He took up an apprenticeship on 21 April last year.He completed all the necessary documentation, as did his employers, within one month. He did not receive any confirmation about where the academic side, his block release in terms of college, would take place. I have followed this up a number of times. I went to the Minister's office and to SOLAS. SOLAS has blamed Covid-related delays for backlogs in admitting this student and others to the college element of their course. At this stage, it is accepted that Covid is no longer a valid excuse. SOLAS came back and told me at the end of September that the student would be in placement in quarter 4 of this year. It is now 10 November 2022 and the student has still not heard anything. This is not good enough. There seems to be lingering delays in the wider apprenticeship sector in terms of these elements and they need to be alleviated. As this young man said, if he went straight into the labouring area of construction, he would be earning three times more. It is hard to keep young people motivated when they are not getting the responses and the opportunities to deal with that essential element of the block release. This would allow them to study and further their own career within the apprenticeship area. I would like to know what is happening to alleviate this issue.