Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

517. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if apprenticeships will be made more attractive for young people given the shortage of people taking up trades. [27268/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

My Department's Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 aims to promote apprenticeship as a route to valuable qualifications and high-quality jobs and careers.

My priority is to make apprenticeships attractive for even more young people, given our skills and workforce needs under priority Government strategies.

As part of this, the National Apprenticeship Office (NAO) is continuing to work with the Institute of Irish Guidance Counsellors to promote and increase awareness of apprenticeship in schools and with parents.

WorldSkills Ireland, sponsored by my Department, is promoting skills based careers and apprenticeship to over 30,000 second level students from across the country. This year's event will take place from the 25th to 27th of September.

The National Apprenticeship Office's "Facts, Faces, Futures" campaign highlighted the skills, talent and contributions made by female apprentices across Ireland. A range of print and audio-visual assets showcasing female role models from the current and graduate apprentice community were developed and made available on Apprenticeship.ie, as well as being disseminated to over 130 “girls only” schools in the country with the help of the Authorised Officer network and employers.

Feedback from the initiative has been very positive within the schools’ network, and the visits will continue into 2024. It is planned to place a further emphasis on opportunities in craft apprenticeship areas as part of the Facts, Faces, Futures campaign in 2024.

From May to August in 2023, the NAO ran a major broad-reaching national campaign focussed on encouraging employers and career seekers (school leavers, parents, career changers) to access a range of exciting opportunities with apprenticeship.

The campaign effectively targeted school leavers and career seekers of all ages, showcasing skills and career opportunities with Generation Apprenticeship, running across Meta and youth-focussed platforms (Snapchat, TikTok), radio and audio XI in summer 2023.

In addition, my Department has developed and launched the Careers in Construction Action Plan in August 2023 including the "Building Heroes" peer-to-peer social media campaign to change perceptions of careers in construction and a documentary of a day in the life of construction apprentices will be distributed to second-level schools across the country.