Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Recognising that cost is a barrier to education, one of this Department’s priorities is to ensure students and their families can benefit from financial support to help with the cost of third level education, including apprenticeship.

Access to Apprenticeship

One of the five overarching objectives of the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 is "Apprenticeship for All”, which aims to ensure that the profile of the apprenticeship population better reflects the general population.

The Plan promotes access, diversity and inclusion in apprenticeship. It offers targeted supports to incentivise participation from under-represented and socio-economically disadvantaged groups. The National Apprenticeship Alliance established the Access & Inclusion Sub-Committee in early 2023 which sets specific targets and interventions in this regard.

The Access to Apprenticeship Initiative supports the apprentices from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds into an apprenticeship scheme. Eligible participants can access a €3,000 grant to support living costs including travel, accommodation and materials. There is €500,000 funding in 2024 for this programme, delivered at TU Shannon, and expanding to include all Education and Training Boards, as well as TUS Limerick, Athlone, MTU and ATU Galway.

Apprenticeship Allowance

While attending off-the-job training in Education and Training Boards, craft apprentices are paid a training allowance appropriate to their training phase. These allowances are set with reference to rates of pay within the national agreements with social partners. For your reference, I have attached a table setting out the most recent standard rates of pay for craft apprenticeships, which was issued in January this year.

In addition to training allowances, craft apprentices attending phases of off-the-job training in an Education and Training Board (ETB) training centre, Institute of Technology or a Technological University are entitled to make an application for either travel or accommodation allowances for the duration of the period of off-the-job training.

Cost of Living and Budget 2024

While the State does not provide allowances to apprentices on consortia led programmes, in Budget 2024 this Department secured €3.8m for a one-third reduction in the Apprenticeship Student Contribution Fee for those attending higher education institutions in the 2023/24 academic year. This was targeted at relieving the immediate pressure associated with making this payment. It is expected that around 11,000 apprentices in higher education will benefit from this measure including apprentices on consortia apprenticeship programmes.