merrion street

Focus on Apprenticeships and Traineeships

Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD, and the Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, TD, will hold the latest in a series of regional meetings on the Action Plan for Education today (Friday 31st March) in the Mayo Campus of Galway Mayo Institute of Technology in Castlebar.

The purpose of this series of meetings is to outline the Government's Action Plan for Education and to detail the steps the Government are taking to make Ireland the best education and training system in Europe by 2026.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny and Minister Bruton will hear ideas and feedback from the educational community and employers based across the region on the Government’s plan to expand Apprenticeships and Traineeships.

Minister Bruton has set out the government’s plan to deliver 50,000 Apprenticeship and Traineeship Places by 2020, as part of the Action Plan on Education launched in September.

This forum follows on from successful meetings in Waterford, Cork and Galway, which discussed issues relating to skills provision and wellbeing.

Speaking at the event in Castlebar, Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD, said:
"Today's forum on apprenticeships and traineeships in GMIT Mayo Campus is one of a number of regional meetings on the Action Plan for Education. The focus of this discussion on apprenticeships and traineeships is very apt as the economy continues to improve and with unemployment now under 7%. Work-based apprenticeships and training programmes have played a vital role in meeting the education and training needs of Ireland for a number of decades at this stage"

Taoiseach Kenny continued: "Since the 1970s, it is estimated that over 100,000 apprentices have been trained. An additional 30,000 people have also been trained through traineeships over the last 20 years. Ireland has been well served by a very high standard of apprenticeship training and education that has contributed greatly to the skills of our workforce. Employer buy-in is critical and it is essential that employment leaders continue to build on new and existing relationships within the enterprise community and that all sectors of the economy embrace the challenge to develop new apprenticeships and traineeships."

Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, TD, said:
“The Action Plan for Education, aiming to make Ireland’s education and training system the best in Europe, is committed to reaching 50,000 registrations by 2020. This will not be easy to deliver, and will require sustained cooperation from industry, and strong support and coordination from the State.
“One of the greatest causalities of the recession were apprenticeships and traineeships. Enrolment in their career pathway collapsed and fell by over 80%. This closed down an important pathway which is a characteristic element in many of the most successful education systems. We now need to do two things. Firstly, rebuild these traditional pathways; and secondly build new apprenticeships and traineeships in areas where they haven’t traditionally existed. We need to rebuild these options into a new robust pathway which will become an attractive and respected option for at least 20% of our school leavers. This would see the present apprenticeship and traineeship system expand significantly, covering all major economic sectors, and doubling enrolments to 14,000. This will require us to forge a new partnership with employers, both in the public and private sectors.
“Working with employers, we will strengthen apprenticeship and traineeship in Ireland, increasing the range of courses and increasing the number of student places to achieve the Government targets.
“Apprenticeship and traineeship is a very exciting option for many young people. Industrial leaders in many sectors place a very high value on a trained apprentice or trainee, with many moving into managerial positons.
“I am very confident that we now have a clear pathway for developing new apprenticeships, clear annual targets for apprenticeship and traineeship registrations as well as targets for the development of new programmes. It is my ambition to develop apprenticeships and traineeships as high quality and attractive options for school leavers, other learners and crucially for the parents of Ireland who have such an influence into career choice.”

Notes for the editor

The Panel responding to audience feedback was as follows:

Enda Kenny T.D. - Taoiseach
Richard Bruton T.D.- Minister for Education and Skills
Dr. Mary-Liz Trant – Executive Director, SOLAS
Dr. Fergal Barry – President, GMIT
Shaun Purcell – CEO, MSLETB
Bernardine McGlade – HR Manager, Baxter Health Care

Previous events:
The first forum focused on the Further Education and Training Sector, including apprenticeships and was held in Waterford.
The second forum focused on Higher Education and was held in Dundalk.
The third forum focused on Wellbeing in Education and was held in Galway

Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a programme of structured education and training which formally combines and alternates learning in the workplace with learning in an education and training centre. An apprenticeship prepares participants for a specific occupation and leads to a qualification on the National Framework of Qualifications. Since the 1970s it is estimated that over 105,000 apprentices have been trained in Ireland. In 2016 there were over 3,700 new registrations on the 27 craft-based apprenticeships. There is a current population of 10,316 apprentices with 3,919 participating employers (December 2016).
Traineeship
Traineeships have been part of the Irish education and training system for over twenty years. Over that period there have been an estimated 30,000 trainee participants, with over 1,500 participant companies.

Action Plan to expand Apprenticeship and Traineeship 2016 - 2020
The Plan now sets out a clear pathway for developing new apprenticeships, a development timeline of 12-15 months, clear annual targets for apprenticeship registrations as well as targets for the development of new programmes. The Plan commits to a new call for proposals in 2017 to refresh the pipeline already established through the 2015 call and also commits to examining the potential for public sector engagement with the apprenticeship system.
The Plan now sets out annual targets and associated actions to extend the traineeship model over the period to 2020 and also sets an overall development timeline for new traineeships of 8-12 months. It also sets out how SOLAS and Education and Training Boards will engage with employers to examine ways of reactivating ‘dormant’ traineeships as well as extending an entirely new career traineeship model.