Aindrias Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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830. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to create apprenticeships to support the growing renewable energy sector; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29802/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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There is a suite of apprenticeship programmes currently in place to equip participants with relevant skills that are essential to support Ireland’s growing renewable energy sector.

In light of the extensive supply chain required for areas such as wind farm development, these apprenticeship programmes include the wind turbine maintenance technician apprenticeship, geo-drilling, accounting technician and various electrical, logistics, manufacturing and engineering programmes.

A planning apprenticeship is now also in development, the success of which will be very relevant to increasing national wind energy capacity.

With the specific focus on the growth of the wind energy sector, the wind turbine maintenance technician apprenticeship, provided by Kerry Education and Training Board was launched in 2022 with 14 apprentices. This three-year programme was designed to meet the needs of the growing renewable and sustainable energy sector and currently has 29 apprentices enrolled. On completion of the programme, apprentices are awarded a Level 6 Advanced Certificate in Industrial Wind Turbine Engineering.

In addition, my Department is supporting a broad range of initiatives to enable us to meet the workforce challenges and skills needs associated with the development of renewable energy, including the development of offshore wind. These include both technical and professional skills and are relevant to a range of job roles. Relevant upskilling and reskilling courses are available via the Human Capital Initiative and Springboard+, and through Greentech Skillnet. Skillnet Ireland is also developing a dedicated and comprehensive offshore wind upskilling programme, which will launch later this year.

My Department is also actively monitoring and planning for future skills requirements for this key sector of the economy through the dedicated Skills and Workforce Workstream of the cross-Departmental Offshore Wind Energy Programme. Through this workstream, my Department collaborated on a skills assessment report for offshore wind, which was published in January. My Department is developing a skills action plan in response to this report, which will outline the precise requirements to guide future activity in the tertiary education sector.