Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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496. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the initiatives that have been taken by Government to encourage women to take up construction skills training; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48326/21]

Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)
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Education and training relevant to skills needs in the construction sector is delivered across the full remit of further education and training and higher education. Learning opportunities are open to all backgrounds and levels of experience through apprenticeship, non-apprenticeship further education and training (FET) and Higher Education (HE) as well as through specific programmes such as Springboard, the Human Capital Initiative and Skillnet Ireland.

The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 promotes access, diversity and inclusion in apprenticeship. Over the coming period, targeted supports will be identified to encourage participation from under-represented groups such as women, those with disabilities and those from ethnic minority backgrounds in apprenticeship.

An employer bursary of €2,667 is currently available to eligible employers who register female apprentices in a craft apprenticeship. Under the plan, the female craft apprentice bursary will be extended to all apprenticeship programmes with greater than 80% representation of a single gender during 2022. By Aug 2021, there were a total of 1,327 women apprentices, up from 60 in 2016.

Work in the area of access to apprenticeships for under-represented groups is ongoing and initiatives underway to boost diversity in apprenticeship across further and higher education include:

- There has been a specific focus on female participation as part of the Generation Apprenticeship national promotional campaign

- Technological University Dublin has developed an Access to Apprenticeship programme. This innovative pilot programme supports the transition of young people (16-24 years old) from areas of socio-economic disadvantage into craft apprenticeships. To date over 118 young men and women have progressed into apprenticeships through this program.