Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2022
39. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if his Department is successfully making apprenticeships available to marginalised groups; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35664/22]
View answer72. Deputy Colm Burke asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if his Department is successfully making apprenticeships available to marginalised groups; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35585/22]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 39 and 72 together.
One of the five overarching objectives of the ‘Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025’ is "Apprenticeship for All" so that the profile of the apprenticeship population more closely reflects the profile of the general population. The Plan promotes general access, diversity and inclusion in apprenticeship through targeted actions to encourage participation from under-represented groups including people with disabilities, women and those from ethnic minorities.
Targets and interventions for specific groups will be detailed through an Equity of Access subcommittee of the National Apprenticeship Alliance to ensure that the voice of under-represented groups is integral to the further development of the apprenticeship system. It is envisaged that the subcommittee will include representation from second-level, community education, youth justice programmes, broader FET provision, and higher education.
The National Apprenticeship Office will increase the visibility of underrepresented groups in apprenticeship literature and promotional material to reflect the participation and positive experience of people from all backgrounds and communities, as well as the availability of assistive supports.
The actions set out in the Plan build on the outcomes of the 2018 Review of Pathways to Participation in Apprenticeship. This has already resulted in a significant widening of measures to support increased visibility of apprenticeships.
Specific immediate actions in the Action Plan include:
- Extension of the female bursary of €2,666, which was paid to employers of female apprentices on the 25 craft apprenticeships, to encourage them to employ minority-gender apprentices to all apprenticeship programmes with greater than 80% representation of a single gender.
- All apprentice jobs are advertised on www.apprenticejobs.ie, with information on apprenticeship now accessible from the CAO website. A dedicated apprentice guidance line has been established to support this initial period of increased visibility of apprenticeship to school leavers
Other actions which will be delivered, including through the Equity of Access subcommittee include:
- Access to apprenticeship programmes and pre-apprenticeship courses will be clearly labelled, with progression routes into apprenticeship clearly identified and information on these courses will be published on www.apprenticeship.ie.
- An employer survey will determine baseline attitudes and knowledge of supports available to employers for supporting employees with a disability.
- Participation targets for under-represented groups, and additional specific actions to support those target groups, will be set with the Equity of Access Subcommittee and monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure that interventions supporting increased diversity within the apprentice population.
I am satisfied that these measures and the implementation process for the Action Plan for Apprenticeship overall will have a significant impact in ensuring greater diversity in the apprenticeship population as a whole.
