Vol. 480 No. 8
72 Mr. Broughan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on the recent criticism by the Construction Industry Federation in respect of the lack of provision of apprenticeship places in the construction industry; and if she considers that the lack of sponsoring places by firms in that industry is the real problem being encountered by FÁS. [15214/97]
The standards-based apprenticeship system, which is operated by FÁS, was introduced in September 1993, and includes 25 trades at present, of which 12 are construction industry related.
The duration of an apprenticeship is now four years, approximately, and there are seven phases in all — four on-the-job with the employer and three off-the-job in a FÁS training centre or an educational college. At the end of August 1997 there were 4,734 apprentices in the system. This represents a 32 per cent increase on the previous 12 months, when registrations totalled 3,597, a figure which itself exceeded the target set for the new apprenticeship, by the social partners in the PESP agreement, where the aim was to increase the annual apprentice intake by 1,000 to 3,500.
This buoyant and welcome increase in apprenticeships has of course placed considerable pressure on the State institutions which provide the necessary off-the-job training for the apprentices. As a result, FÁS has increased and is continuing to increase the number of apprenticeship places in order to meet the growing demand with the minimum of delay.
In regard to the provision of apprenticeship places by employers in the construction industry, it is generally recognised that the current shortage of certain skilled workers in the industry, such as bricklayers, plasterers and painter-decorators, is the result of insufficient recruitment and training of apprentices by employers in the early years of this decade. In view of the lead-time of apprentice training, I would urge employers to take a longer term view of their future human resource requirements and, since they are responsible for apprentice recruitment, to provide for the employment and training of adequate numbers of apprentices in order to avoid future skill shortages.
