Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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388. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the degree to which he continues to make provision for an increased number of technical graduates/apprentices in order to meet the needs of individual sectors in the industry; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45997/23]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The ‘Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025’ sets out new ways of structuring, funding, and promoting apprenticeships. The ambitions of the Plan span both financial and non-financial measures.

Significant financial supports to employers that have been introduced include:

• The annual Employer Grant of €2,000 per apprentice means that employers of all apprentices now have access to financial support, either through direct payment of allowances to apprentices or through the grant.
• The gender-based bursary of €2,666 is available for those who employ apprentices in the minority gender on any national apprenticeship programme with greater than 80% representation of a single gender.

• The One More Job initiative provides tailored financial and training supports to Irish micro- and small-businesses who employ one or more apprentices in 2023.
• Free online mentoring for employers new to training apprentices, grants towards training costs, and guidance from the One More Job team during the first year of training.

Building on the measures taken over 2021-23, Budget 2024 provides €67m additional investment into the apprenticeship system. This will allow craft apprenticeship to continue to grow from 13,000 places in 2022 to over 16,000 places in 2024, and reduce the length of time an apprentice waits for training.

Furthermore, I want to make apprenticeship an attractive career path and one that is accessible for all young people. In that regard, I am delighted to confirm that there will be increased funding of €400,000 for a bursary for apprentices from under-represented groups.

More broadly, I recognise the impact that the cost of living is having on our apprentices. This is why I am particularly pleased that apprentices will benefit from €3.8m to enable a one-third reduction in the Apprenticeship Student Contribution Fee for those attending higher education institutions in the 2023/24 academic year. This is targeted at relieving the immediate pressure associated with making this payment. It is anticipated that circa 11,000 apprentices in higher education will benefit from this measure.

I am satisfied that these measures and supports will have a significant impact in ensuring greater capacity and uptake in the apprenticeship system.