Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The apprenticeship system is currently responding to a marked increase in demand over the past four years, driven by overall tertiary sector demand, Covid-related training backlogs, and growing demand for skills delivered through apprenticeship. Given these delays, it is the Government’s ambition to right-size apprenticeship capacity in line with the labour market demands, the ambitions of the Action Plan for Apprenticeship, and to support wider Government objectives under Housing For All, retrofitting, and green skills.

My Department is working closely with SOLAS and the ETBs to continue to increase training capacity, resulting in 13,000 craft places delivered in 2022. It is intended to deliver some 15,300 places in total this year. Significant funding has been provided in Budget 2024 to further accelerate and intensify the delivery of increased training capacity.

My Department is working on an ongoing basis with SOLAS, the National Apprenticeship Office, the Higher Education Authority, the ETB sector, and union representatives. Through weekly meetings, we are working to devise and successfully implement a funded set of actions to address this very significant and important issue.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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296. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills what plans are in place to deal with the waiting times for apprentices to attend college placements (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45718/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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There has been a strong growth in registrations for craft apprenticeship in a demand-led system, where employers in a buoyant construction sector are continuing to recruit strongly to meet their future skill needs. Craft apprenticeship registrations for 2022 and 2021 were in total 13,254, an increase of almost 40% over the preceding two years.

The strength of the construction sector is also impacting adversely on the education and training system's ability to recruit additional instructors required to meet apprenticeship training need. A planned upcoming national recruitment campaign for instructors will be central to the delivery by ETBs of this additional capacity including through a third intake of apprentices each year.

The persistence of significant backlogs in apprenticeship training is a serious cause of concern to me. I therefore prioritised apprenticeship in the recent Estimates resulting in a €67m investment into the apprenticeship system. This will enable growth in the craft apprenticeship training system from 13,000 in 2022 to over 16,000 places in 2024 - an increase approaching 25%.

SOLAS, the National Apprenticeship Office and the ETBs, together with staff representatives, are continuing to work intensively with my Department to deliver the required additional apprenticeship training capacity to secure the reductions in waiting time in particular for phase 2 training.