Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 July 2022
41. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if his Department has plans for further incentives for employers making apprenticeships available; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35665/22]
View answerThe ‘Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025’ sets out new ways of structuring, funding, and promoting apprenticeships to make apprenticeship accessible to employers and learners. The Plan seeks to deliver on a target of 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per annum, across a wide range of programmes, by 2025.
The Action Plan is based on feedback from enterprise, the education and training sector and apprentices themselves, among others, and we have listened to the issues and concerns raised.
Nobody understands the skills employers need better than the employers themselves and without their engagement there can simply be no apprenticeships or places on those programmes. That is why we are driving supports, both financial and non-financial, to encourage and support their engagement.
Significant financial supports have been introduced this year under the Action Plan:
- The annual Employer Grant of €2,000 per apprentice means that, for the first time, employers of all apprentices now have access to financial support, either through direct payment of allowances to apprentices or through the grant. This will help to promote engagement with the non-craft programmes, including the development of new programmes.
- The gender-based bursary of €2,666 is available for those who employ apprentices in the minority gender on any national apprenticeship programme with greater than 80% representation of a single gender. It is an expansion of the ‘female bursary’ available to craft apprenticeship employers prior to 2022 and there are currently 42 programmes which meet the criterion.
Employer feedback during the consultation process of the Action Plan highlighted that non-financial supports were particularly important for SME employers. Recognising this, supports to be in place during 2022 include:
- The National Apprenticeship Office will link potential consortia members, education providers, and supporting consortia members and/or provide supports to build in-company training capacity.
- Sector-specific supports to be delivered through apprenticeship consortia to support SME employers.
- A development plan is to be delivered for a user-centred apprenticeship management system to simplify employer participation within and across apprenticeship.
- Proposed amendments to the Industrial Training Act, 1967, included in the Higher Education Authority Bill, 2022, will widen the scope for new apprenticeship programmes in an expanded range of sectors.
The increased diversity of new apprenticeships, many of which have off-the-job training delivered through online or blended learning provides a significant opportunity for widening of access to apprenticeship for rural businesses and learners. In addition, Education and Training Boards, Institutes of Technology and Technological Universities are spread throughout the country and play a very important role in ensuring apprenticeship provision has a strong regional dimension.
