Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 September 2023
303. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the extent to which he continues to engage with the labour market, with a view to ensuring an adequate number of apprentices, with particular reference to the next academic year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40932/23]
View answer307. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the extent to which the educational needs of apprentices can be matched to the availability of instructors/lecturers in order to meet the requirements of the industry and apprentices in the shortest time possible; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40936/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 303 and 307 together.
The backlogs in apprentice progression, predominantly at phase-2 off-the-job, has been an area of unrelenting focus for this Government. In August 2021, there were almost 12,000 apprentices awaiting off-the-job training. At the end of August this year, 7,578 apprentices were waiting for off-the-job training. Of these 5,257 apprentices were waiting longer than six months.
During 2019, some 9,700 craft apprentices were being put through off-the-job training. This dropped to 7,000 in 2020 due largely to the impact of Covid, and returned to growth in 2021 with the number of apprentices trained increasing to 7,300. My Department has worked closely with SOLAS and the ETBs to continue to increase training capacity, resulting in 13,000 places delivered in 2022, a very important step in responding to the challenge of apprentices waiting to access off-the-job training. It is intended to deliver some 15,300 places in total in 2023.
There is a crucial requirement to align training capacity in ETBs with the continued strong demand for apprenticeships - with particular focus on apprenticeships linked to the construction sector - and also to put in place further measures which will add to capacity over the period required to respond to ongoing delays in apprenticeship training.
In order to further accelerate and intensify delivery of increased apprenticeship training capacity, a taskforce chaired by my Department composed of representatives of SOLAS, the National Apprenticeship Office, the Higher Education Authority, Education and Training Boards Ireland, the Education and Training Boards, and union representatives has been established with responsibility to implement successfully a set of actions to address this very significant and important issue.
