Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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4. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the steps he is taking to encourage more young people into apprenticeships and trades. [40066/24]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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My Department's Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 aims to make apprenticeship highly visible and strongly recognised by learners, parents, family and career guidance professionals through a dedicated information campaign, and to promote apprenticeship as an attractive route to qualifications and a career.

The National Apprenticeship Office (NAO) has led regular targeted marketing and promotional campaigns targeting young people, including most recently an all Island radio, TV, and print media campaign on the same week as the Leaving Certificate results featuring positive apprentice testimonials from across the 77 national apprenticeship programmes.

My Department launched the “Building Heroes” campaign in April 2024 which takes a peer-to-peer approach to highlighting the opportunities, as well as promoting more positive public attitudes, regarding careers in today's construction sector. Since the launch the campaign has had more than three million impressions online and construction apprentices have appeared on national media including on 2FM to share their stories directly.

My Department also sponsors WorldSkills Ireland, a national event that promotes skills based careers and apprenticeship directly to second level students, parents and guidance counsellors. This year's event was held in September with almost 30,000 senior cycle students attending.

Recognising the impact of living costs on decisions to partake in education, I am pleased to say that I have announced a once off 33% reduction to the student fee for the 14,000 apprentices attending higher education institutes to assist with the cost of living for those who earn while they learn.

Bursaries are also available to support apprentices from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, and to incentivise employers to support gender balance in apprenticeship programmes.

Combined, these measures support my Department's goal of encouraging school-leavers and young adults to choose apprenticeship and trades.