Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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117. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the degree to which he and his Department continue to liaise with other Departments with a view to increasing the number of apprentices available or likely to become available in the coming years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30677/17]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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The Programme for Government commits to providing 31,000 apprenticeship places by 2020. Building on this commitment, the Action Plan for Education states that we will enrol 50,000 people on apprenticeship and traineeship programmes in the period to 2020. This represents a near doubling of current activity. 

In January this year, I published the Action Plan to Expand Apprenticeship and Traineeship 2016-2020 which sets out a series of detailed actions and annual targets on how the commitments set out in both the Programme for Government and the Action Plan for Education will be met. The plan sets out a clear 10 step critical path for the development of an apprenticeship and also sets an overall timeline of 12-15 months.  My Department, its agencies and the Apprenticeship Council are working in close collaboration with the combined aim of delivering these targets.

A second call for proposals, a key action in the plan, opened on the 4 May with a deadline of 1 September for submission of proposals to develop new apprenticeships.

As the deputy is aware, the Apprenticeship Council is currently overseeing the expansion of the apprenticeship system into a range of new sectors of the economy. Following its first call for proposals in 2015, the Apprenticeship Council has been working closely with consortia to develop their proposals into sustainable apprenticeships. Last year we saw the first of these new programmes with the Insurance Practitioner Apprenticeship launching in September and the Industrial Electrical Engineer Apprenticeship getting underway in November.

Earlier this month a further three new apprenticeships commenced, with the launch of apprenticeships in the occupations of Manufacturing Engineer and Manufacturing Technician in the medical device area and Processing Technologist in the polymer manufacturing area.  Subject to successful validation, ten further new programmes are scheduled to commence in 2017, in various occupations including Commis Chef, Accounting Technician, Software Developer and Network Engineer and roles in the international financial services sector.