Written answers
Wednesday, 22 May 2024
Department of Education and Skills
Apprenticeship Programmes
Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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205. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No. 5 of 27 February 2024 (details supplied), if he can confirm how much of the €67 million in additional funding that was provided for the apprenticeship system was allocated toward the national recruitment campaign of craft apprentice instructors; the number of instructors hired to date; can he provide a breakdown of the course areas they are instructing on (i.e., electrical, plumbing, carpentry, etc.); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23031/24]
Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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206. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if specific targets have been set for the national recruitment campaign to hire an additional 100 craft apprentice instructors per ETB; if so, the number of instructors it is hoped to hire per ETB; the areas of teaching that is, electrical, carpentry and so on, they will be engaged in, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23040/24]
Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 205 and 206 together.
A national recruitment campaign for craft apprenticeship instructors was launched by the National Apprenticeship Office in Q4 2023, with an aim to support delivery and increased capacity of phase 2 off-the-job training in ETBs.
To date, 77 posts have been advertised and 58 posts filled. Further posts will be advertised as capital projects come on stream across the rest of 2024 and into Q1 2025.
| Instructor type | No. of Posts filled to date |
|---|---|
| Carpentry & Joinery | 1 |
| Electrical | 35 |
| Electrical Instrumentation | 1 |
| Heavy Vehicle Mechanics | 4 |
| Mechanical Automation &Maintenance Fitter (MAAF) | 1 |
| Metal Fabrication | 1 |
| Motor Mechanics | 3 |
| Pipefitting | 4 |
| Plumbing | 8 |
| Wood Manufacturing & Finishing | 0 |
| Total | 58 |
Additionally, 80+ instructor posts were converted from fixed term to permanent.
The National Apprenticeship Office allocated €149,000 to a recruitment advertising budget, which was focussed on social media, radio and digital audio and video. A first round of the campaign during November and December 2023 across digital, print and radio resulted in 3,701,082 impressions, with 1,101,982 video views and 25,246 link clicks.
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