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13 trades to benefit from €8m capital funding in 10 Institutes of Technology

Government investing in alternative pathways, responding to skill needs

The Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, and Minister of State for Training, Skills, Innovation and Research and Development, John Halligan have announced capital funding of €8 million for 10 Institutes of Technology.

This Government is committed to more than doubling the number of new apprentices registered to 9,000 by 2020 and expanding further into new areas. Budget 2018 allocated €122m for apprenticeship training, an increase of almost 24% on the previous year. This will allow the Government to deliver 10 more apprenticeship programmes and over 6,000 more apprenticeship registrations in 2018.

This investment will support an estimated 2,300 additional apprentices that will commence in one of these programmes in 2018 once the works are complete.

Announcing the funding, Minister Bruton said:

We’ve committed to doubling the number of apprenticeships and traineeships by 2020. Today’s investment will enable Institutes of Technology across the country to purchase equipment and update their infrastructure so that they can deliver a new modernised syllabus in 13 trades – from Brickwork to Aircraft Maintenance, supporting almost 2,300 apprentices that will commence one of these programmes this year.