Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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1085. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the current number of apprentices waiting for off-the-job training at level 2, 4 and 6, disaggregated by craft apprenticeship type, in tabular form;; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40431/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On August 2021, there were almost 12,000 apprentices awaiting off-the-job training. At the end of August this year, 7,578 apprentices were waiting for off-the-job training. Of these 5,257 apprentices were waiting longer than six months.

There will always be a degree of waiting for apprentices, due to factors such as term commencement dates in higher education institutions and increased demand some craft programmes but this is generally limited to less than six months. My Department continues to work closely with SOLAS and the ETBs to increase training capacity, a very important step in responding to the challenge of craft apprentices waiting to access off-the-job training. It is intended to deliver some 15,300 places in 2023.

In order to further accelerate increased apprenticeship training capacity, a taskforce chaired by my Department composed of representatives of SOLAS, the National Apprenticeship Office, the Higher Education Authority, Education and Training Boards Ireland, the Education and Training Boards, and union representatives has been established with responsibility to implement successfully a set of actions to address this very significant and important issue. I will provide the information requested in writing.