Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 March 2025
875. Deputy Grace Boland asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to detail the work of his Department on achieving a greater gender balance in apprenticeships; the take-up of the supports to help achieve a better balance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13382/25]
View answerA key pillar of this department's Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 focusses on ensuring that the apprenticeship population more closely reflects the profile of the general population, which includes improving gender balance.
As part of the implementation of the Action Plan for Apprenticeship, a €2,666 grant was made available to employers from January 2022 of any national apprenticeship programme with a greater than 80% representation of a single gender who employ apprentices on the under-represented gender.
In 2024 and 2025, 47 of the 77 apprenticeship programmes available qualified for the gender bursary, all but one of which were in relation to females, with the exception being in Hairdressing, in which males qualify.
My Department also launched the Building Heroes social media campaign in 2024 which was aimed at dispelling the myths surrounding careers in construction and encouraging female participation, reaching more than 3.5 million people.
The National Apprenticeship Office has been promoting female participation though the Facts, Faces, Futures campaign, which launched in 2023. This aims to increase the number of women in craft apprenticeships through engaging directly with all girls’ schools around the country. Facts, Faces, Futures is ongoing, with fresh impetus added each year as more apprenticeship programmes are added.
As a direct result of all of these actions, female registration figures for apprenticeships have increased significantly. As of end-February 2025, there are 2,603 female apprentices, approximately 9% of the overall apprentice population, a 70% increase since the end of 2021, the year the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 was launched.
