Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Niall Collins, to the Seanad to take this Commencement matter.

Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail)
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I am delighted to welcome the Minister of State. He is a hard-working Minister and well known to this House. I have discussed this with the Minister of State already and am delighted he agreed to come to the House to flesh out the figures and the details. There has been a concern that there are not enough places in some of the courses at present, or qualified staff to teach these apprenticeship courses. It seems to be an issue. They are the two big concerns I am hearing.

I am well aware of how the apprenticeship scheme works. We have had several apprentices through our hands over the years. It has always been a great system, particularly in the auctioneering sector. Nearly anyone who got through the system went on to achieve good things in their line of business. It allowed them to work and earn some money at the same time. They gained vital experience on the job, which I firmly believe is the best way to learn. The Minister of State might be able to enlighten us about the teachers or lack of same and the placements or lack of same.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for his question on an important issue for apprentices and for my Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The Senator will know that craft apprenticeships account for 25 of the existing available apprenticeship programmes. Given the practical nature of off-the-job training for craft apprentices, the Covid-related shutdown of on-site learning activity over the past two years has had a significant impact on their ability to access such training. The remaining 37 apprenticeships have not been delayed but may have had disruption to recruitment in, for example, hospitality.

While I appreciate the frustration these delays are causing, I reassure the Senator that the education and training sector is doing everything possible to ensure all waiting lists for craft apprentices are cleared as soon as possible. SOLAS, the Higher Education Authority and the education and training providers work together to deliver craft apprenticeship off-the-job training places and have worked closely to change how training is delivered.

The apprenticeships with the longest waiting lists, namely, electrical, plumbing and carpentry, have seen significant reform measures.These changes are now running through the system, with more apprentices being called for their off-the-job training than before. In addition, classes that had been running at half capacity due to Covid-19 distancing measures are now back at full intake of 14 to 16 apprentices per phase.

An amount of €20 million in capital funding was provided in 2020 to extend and upgrade craft apprenticeship facilities across the further and higher education institutions. Some €17 million of additional funding was provided under budget 2022 to facilitate the response to the backlogs across SOLAS and the higher education sector. This included a significant recruitment campaign to increase the number of trainers. The delivery structures for phase 2 off-the-job training have been changed to facilitate a third intake of apprentices per annum and an opt-in rapid employer assessment is being piloted for the final phase of craft apprenticeships.

At the end of December, 8,797 craft apprentices were waiting for access to phases 2, 4 and 6 off-the-job training. This is down from the 12,000 apprentices that were on the list last August. Subject to continuing access to workshops and training facilities, and in addition to the roll-out of more places, it is expected that the majority of craft apprentices waiting for off-the-job training at phases 4 and 6 will be called in the early months of this year. It is expected that the phase 2 waiting list will be completely cleared by the end of the year.

Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his comprehensive answer. Undoubtedly, he will work on this as hard as he can to try to speed matters up. I appreciate that.

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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I will outline for the House some other pertinent sources of information that may be of assistance to Senators, their offices and their constituents. I encourage all Senators and everyone interested in apprenticeships to keep an eye on two portals - gov.ie/therightcourseand the interactive apprenticeships.iewebsite. They are one-stop shops for information that people may want to access in order to discover and learn about apprenticeships.

We have 62 formalised apprenticeship programmes, a further 15 are in an advanced state of development and there are expressions of interest regarding 15 more. Under our Action Plan for Apprenticeship, we have also established the National Apprenticeship Office, to which we have appointed a new director, to oversee the entire apprenticeship offering from the 62 current programmes to the emerging programmes. We have modified the Central Applications Office, CAO, portal to allow students and interested people who want to apply for apprenticeships to resource themselves through it.

Fiona O'Loughlin (Fianna Fail)
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The rationalisation of the CAO portal is very welcome. I checked out gov.ie/therightcourse and was amazed by its information and the number of courses on it, which any of us can take at any stage.