Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

1416. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the average time it took from phase 1 to completion of each apprenticeship, by trade in County Tipperary in 2024 and to-date in 2025, in tabular form. [48408/25]

James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Craft apprentices are registered by their employers to the Education and Training Board (ETB) region in which the employer is located. This means the apprentice may not necessarily reside in or be originally from that region. For example, in the case of County Tipperary, apprentices are registered to Tipperary ETB (TETB) based on the employer’s location.

Across 2024 and 2025, apprentices registered to TETB completed in 18 craft programmes. The median completion times for these programmes are presented in the table below. The use of the median, rather than the average, provides a more accurate representation of typical completion times, as it is less affected by extreme values. This approach is consistent with guidance from the Central Statistics Office, which recommends the median as a more reliable measure of central tendency.

It is important to note that apprentices are registered throughout the year. To complete a craft apprenticeship, an apprentice must undertake a minimum of 48 months (208 weeks) of training.

Table – median number of weeks to complete programme.

** This figure is skewed by an apprentice who paused their apprenticeship for a 12-year period from 2007, after which they elected to complete their craft apprenticeship.