Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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798. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills when the Apprenticeship Council will provide a report on proposals for a new way of developing apprenticeships; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19832/15]

Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour)
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799. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress being made to have training in the hospitality sector included in the redesign of the apprenticeship programme under SOLAS; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19833/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 798 and 799 together.

The Apprenticeship Council is required to submit a report to the Minister for Education and Skills, by 31 June 2015, on viable new apprenticeships. To achieve this goal, the Council's first task was to issue a call for proposals from a consortia of industry, education and training providers, to develop new apprenticeships in areas outside the current portfolio of apprenticeship programmes. The Apprenticeship Council received 86 proposals for new apprenticeships from 48 separate organisations. This includes 10 proposals in the tourism and sport sector. To manage the evaluation process in a fair and consistent manner the Apprenticeship Council established an evaluation panel, assisted by an independent process auditor, to evaluate submitted proposals. The evaluation panel is currently in the process of evaluating the submissions.

It should also be noted that in relation to the hospitality sector, SOLAS is currently engaged in the development of a pilot Career Traineeship model of training programme delivery for the hotel sector. This model is being developed in partnership with Education and Training Boards (ETBs) the Irish Hotel Federation, Fáilte Ireland and hoteliers. These pilot training programmes will commence in the last quarter of 2015.