Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for her questions on this important issue for local authorities and the apprenticeship programme. I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, who cannot be here.

As the Senator is aware, a key commitment in the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 is to grow the number of apprenticeship registrations across the public service, including local authorities, as the Senator highlighted, to 750 annually by 2025. This represents in excess of a sevenfold increase on the 2020 registrations number and will support the long-term goal of 7% of the apprentice population being employed by public service employers.

The diversity of the public service in terms of service delivery provides a wide basis for involvement, as the Senator correctly pointed out, with a range of apprenticeship programmes already in place and new programmes in development. Apprenticeships are national programmes that provide an opportunity to target and widen the recruitment pool for both generalist and specialist roles within the public service. A great deal of work has already been done to advance that ambition. Following a series of information sessions with civil and public service HR managers, a working group representing Departments, agencies and local authorities was established in January 2022 to develop a framework to support the adoption of apprenticeship programmes as a mode of recruitment, upskilling and reskilling across the public service. The group's work was based on surveying more than 100 organisations on their skills needs.

There has been extensive bilateral engagement with the Local Government Management Agency, LGMA, to assist with surveying local authorities on their skills needs. The results of the survey showed an appetite and opportunity within the civil and public service to meet the target of 750 public service apprenticeship registrations per annum by 2025. While existing experience of apprenticeships was limited, the survey demonstrates a particular willingness and demand across the majority of respondents for programmes in the areas of accounting, software, cybersecurity and recruitment. The Senator highlighted the range of trades, which are also important and have been a key focus of the apprenticeship programme nationally.

Feedback from individuals involved in the pilot ICT apprenticeship scheme for Departments and Government offices emphasised the need to have relevant supports and procedures in place for apprentices at the commencement of their programme. Last month, in partnership with representatives of the Civil Service management board and the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science hosted the first face-to-face workshop meeting, which included significant attendance from across the civil and public service. Officials in the Department are now moving forward in capturing the outputs of this workshop in a formalised framework that will provide civil and public service bodies with a roadmap for engaging with existing apprenticeship programmes and forming a consortium for the establishment of new apprenticeship programmes for the purposes of meeting organisations' skills needs. The planned framework document will be completed by the end of quarter 1 of this year. There has also been engagement with the HSE and the Department of Health on the commitment in the action plan to explore a healthcare assistant apprenticeship programme within the HSE and the options for how it might be piloted.

We are very much aware of the recruitment challenge across a range of different skills, both in the public service and more broadly. The apprenticeship programme offers a new way of training, retraining and upskilling at different stages of a person's career and providing new pathways to work in a whole range of different fields. It is a very strong programme and the Senator is right to highlight the opportunity within local authorities.