Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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1113. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will address the issue of a participant (details supplied) in a Solas apprenticeship who is unable to progress due to a delay in receiving examination results; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14319/21]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Craft apprenticeships represent 25 of the 60 available apprenticeship programmes and 85% of total apprentice registrations as at the end of 2020. Craft apprenticeships consist of seven phases of training, three of which are off-the-job and delivered by Education and Training Boards, Institutes of Technology and Technological Universities across the country.

Start and end dates for an apprenticeship are defined respectively by the date the apprentice is registered with SOLAS and when a Results Approval Panel confirms to SOLAS that an apprentice has successfully met the required standard by completion of all on and off the job elements of their apprenticeship. For craft apprentices, this process is generally completed by 208 weeks, while noting that this may not always be the case. For example there could be a delay in either the on or off the job elements for a variety of reasons. 

The Government have allocated additional funding for 2021 to fund 2,000 apprenticeship places required to catch up on the lost provision in 2020 and to mitigate against the effect of smaller apprenticeship class sizes.  To date, SOLAS designed and implemented an alternative assessment strategy for approximately 2,100 craft apprentices in June 2020 to address immediate continuity of training and assessments issues at that time. 

If the Deputy would like to forward registration details of the apprentice highlighted in her question a more detailed response may be available.