Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 March 2022
55. Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will report on the low number of apprentices that became fully qualified tradespersons in 2021; his plans for the apprenticeship system given the demands to deliver on housing, retrofitting and other infrastructure needs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [12800/22]
Amharc ar fhreagraWill the Minister report on the low number of apprentices that became fully qualified tradespersons in 2021, the plans for the apprenticeship system and the demands to deliver on housing, retrofitting and other infrastructure? Perhaps he could speak to needs beyond that. Will he detail the dealings of his Department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the regional skills forum in delivering what we need into the future?
I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for the question. The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 aims to ensure the apprenticeship system will contribute to meeting Ireland's skills and human capital requirements by delivering on a target of 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per annum by 2025. Among the 62 apprenticeships currently available at levels 5 to 10 of the national framework of qualifications, 25 are craft-related. More specifically, they include housing and retrofitting-related programmes such as electrical, plumbing, carpentry and joinery, plastering, painting and decorating and the recently-launched scaffolding apprenticeship.
Given the practical nature of off-the-job training for craft apprentices, the pandemic shutdown of on-site learning significantly impacted the ability of apprentices to access this training over the past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has led to some apprentices taking longer to fully qualify. However I am pleased to say that more than 7,500 of the affected apprentices have now progressed in their off-the-job training. This includes more than 600 final-year apprentices who have been fast-tracked to complete their qualification.
It is worth noting that overall craft apprenticeship qualification data show that numbers qualifying from these programmes rose over the five-year period from 2016 to 2021 from 1,222 to 1,798. Despite the fact that two of those years were affected by the pandemic, we saw a significant increase in the number of people qualifying from craft apprenticeships. Furthermore and encouragingly, annual intake to these programmes has been steadily increasing from a low of 650 in 2010. In 2021, a record of 8,607 new apprentices were registered, an almost 40% increase on the figures from 2019, in what we call the last "normal" pre-pandemic year, whatever that is. Of those registrations, 5,181 were on construction and electrical apprenticeships. As of January 2022, the latest full-month figures, there have been 376 construction-related registrations.
I suppose the question is whether we have the throughput we will require into the future to provide us with the needs we have. We are talking about building and retrofitting and beyond that we have been talking specifically about work on renewable energy etc. Even beyond that we are looking at apprenticeships in non-traditional and non-craft training, even taking in training that might previously have happened in colleges. There is also the question of the post-leaving certificate route and whatever other routes are available.
There is work that goes between the Minister's Department, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and the regional skills forum. Where will we get the information on the skills and numbers that are required and how that can happen? Do we even have enough employers to take on apprentices etc.? How often are we reviewing this?
There are two specific answers. The expert group on future skills needs falls under the remit of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and SOLAS is an agency of my Department that looks at labour bulletins and where skills shortages exist and which has a responsibility for meeting those skills shortages.
I will take those two specific issues because we have figures for them. To deliver the retrofitting programme, we believe we need 17,000 additional people working in retrofitting by the middle of the decade, or 2025. To achieve that we will open five centres of excellence in retrofitting training. We have a centre open in Waterford and another in Mount Lucas, County Offaly. We will have three more coming this year, with one in Cork, one in Limerick and one in Sligo. This will give us the throughput to provide the 17,000 workers. We need to create the demand and my message to any tradesperson or craftsperson who happens to come across this debate or is listening, it is that these are short, fast, free and flexible courses. They can be done at the weekends and the average person's training is approximately three days. It is not a big apprenticeship programme but it is about somebody getting a piece of upskilling. With construction, we need 27,500 more people to build 33,000 homes per year by the middle of the decade.
I appreciate the answers from the Minister and in fairness, I probably threw enough down that it would have taken him another ten minutes to go through everything individually. I request a wee bit of leeway, as I am sure many of us have been asked questions about moves that will be made to facilitate people coming from Ukraine. The Minister is on the record speaking about this. I am talking about tradespeople doing apprenticeships and I have been contacted about people doing medical studies. Where is the lie of the land in that regard?
I will follow up with the Minister on the proposal around the Redeemer centre. It is basically a place where people who might not necessarily be initially comfortable in, for example, Dundalk Institute of Technology, DkIT, could possibly start courses, including post-leaving certificate courses in the likes of that centre. There will be a need for a funding solution.
Will the Minister indicate if he will meet Oireachtas Members about DkIT in the near future? I apologise for being so broad.
I might need an hour and a half to reply to all of that.
You have one minute.
The DkIT cross-party Oireachtas Members meeting must happen and I put it on the record of the House that it will get under way quickly. The transcript will act as an aide-memoire on that.
On the question of students coming from Ukraine and my Department's responsibility in that regard, the Deputy raises an important point. My Department's responsibilities will largely arise in four areas. These include English-language supports and ensuring we have provision for anyone who comes to this country to access English-language provision. We are working to ramp that up and we have a good network and structure in place already to ensure we can meet demand there.
We will treat any student who comes here from Ukraine the same as an Irish student in terms of access to student supports and not being subjected to international fees and the like. That is a commitment I give now. The Department will also ensure the continuance of education for anybody in the middle of a programme, including Irish students in Ukraine and returning. We are working our way through that but we will meet that goal.
The fourth element is important in the area of skills, as we will provide a personal assessment to anybody coming into the country in respect of his or her own skills and how they may match with qualification frameworks here. It is about ensuring that such people can access the labour market too.
