Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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154. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to roll out new curriculum area apprenticeship programmes in 2018 and 2019; the level of academic attainment they will sit at; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44460/18]

John Halligan (Waterford, Independent)
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This Government is committed to doubling the number of people on an apprenticeship programme by 2020 and expanding the apprenticeship model into new sectors of the economy. Arising from our two calls for apprenticeship proposals in 2015 and 2017 sixteen new apprenticeships have now been developed in a range of new occupations, including financial services, engineering, ICT, hospitality, logistics and biopharma leading to awards ranging from level 6 to level 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ). Further new apprenticeships are scheduled to get underway later this year and throughout 2019 in a variety of sectors including construction, engineering, horticulture and agriculture.  Details of these, including the target NFQ level, are set out in the following tables. It should be noted that the NFQ level can only be finally determined through the programme validation process.

Apprenticeships due to be rolled out by the end of 2018

Apprenticeships due to roll-out in 2019