Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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476. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to introduce an apprenticeship or traineeship in the farm contracting sector. [16753/18]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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This Government is committed to expanding the apprenticeship and traineeship model into new sectors of the economy. The Government will double the number of apprenticeships through our Apprenticeship Plan.  Last year, a second call for apprenticeship proposals invited consortia of enterprise, professional bodies and education and training providers to submit proposals for apprenticeship programmes to be developed to meet identified skill needs in their sector.  Arising from this call, 26 new apprenticeship proposals were approved to be further developed into national apprenticeship programmes.  Included in these proposals are a number of farm related apprenticeships which are set out on the attached table.  It is estimated that the development process will take between 12 and 15 months.

A range of traineeship programmes are currently available around the country. The opportunity to develop new programmes in response to identified skills needs is available on an ongoing basis. There are currently no traineeships in the farm contracting sector but employers, or employer representative bodies, interested in creating a new traineeship in this sector should contact their local ETB.

Proposed Apprenticeships in the Farming Sector