Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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195. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the average waiting time to access training in each SOLAS training centre; her plans to cater for the anticipated surge of new entrants following the doubling of apprenticeship courses from 27 to 52 in the recent report by the Apprenticeship Council; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [27977/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Training centres are run by individual Education and Training Boards (ETBs) rather than SOLAS. Information on waiting times would be a matter for the ETBs but they would very according to the type of programme, the means of recruitment and other factors.

I am currently in the process of examining the implications of the report from the Apprenticeship Council in the light of the governance, budgetary and other considerations raised in their report. It should be noted that a range of further and higher education and training providers are involved in the proposals made to the Apprenticeship Council so additional demand will not fall exclusively on training centres. The next stage of the process involves the detailed development of the proposals into apprenticeships, including curriculum development, quality assurance, approval of employers and a range of other issues.