Jen Cummins (Dublin South Central, Social Democrats)
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2499. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills how many undergraduate, postgraduate, PLC and apprenticeship courses are available at third level, in tabular form. [18894/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested by the Deputy is in the table below:

Undergraduate courses include Access and Foundation courses, Undergraduate Certificates, Undergraduate Diplomas, Higher Certificates, Ordinary Degrees and Honours Degrees. Postgraduate courses include Higher Diplomas, Postgraduate Diplomas, Postgraduate Certificates, Research Masters programmes, Taught Masters programmes and PhD programmes.

With regard to apprenticeship courses, there are currently 77 national apprenticeship programmes available. Of these, 75 have a National Framework Qualification (NFQ) level between 6 and 10. That is to say, from Advanced Higher Certificate to Doctoral Degree. The remaining two programmes are in scaffolding and butchery, and are offered at NFQ level 5.

The number and variety of apprenticeship programmes has increased since the establishment of my department in 2020. At the end of that year, there were 57 national apprenticeship programmes between NFQ level 6 to 10. The growth to 75 represents a 32% increase in such apprenticeships. New programmes are expected to become available in 2025, all of which will be from NFQ level 6 and above.

The programmes cover an extensive variety of areas that feed into the development of the growing Irish economy. This ranges from construction and engineering to health, hospitality, finance, information technology and agriculture, among others.

Details of apprenticeships are available at apprenticeship.ie.

The Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) programme is designed to provide specific vocational skills to those who have completed senior cycle, adults returning to education deemed to have the necessary competencies, and those who are unemployed and seeking to upskill.

There are currently 925 PLC courses available in the Further Education and Training sector. Outside the FET system overseen by the ETBs, there are approximately 25 independent Community and Voluntary Secondary Schools that are funded to deliver full-time Post-Leaving Certificate (PLC) Courses. Courses are delivered in ‘Dual Provision’ schools where FE learners share the same staff, buildings, and resources with the Second Level students. These schools afford learners the opportunity to access Further Education courses in their own local area. These colleges had 708 PLC learners start a course in 2023, and 718 PLC learners start a course in 2024.