Apprenticeship Programmes
Dail Éireann — 2022-12-01
============================================================

Rose Conway-Walsh (SF), Mayo

Why is so little progress being made in clearing the backlog of apprentices waiting to access off-the-job training in further education colleges and technological universities, given that 4,937 apprentices have been waiting over six months to be given a date to begin their off-the-job training? Can the Minister let us know the steps he has taken to facilitate apprentices accessing training close to home? Over the last two and a half years, the apprenticeship system has been chronic and chaotic, with one in four apprentices waiting more than six months to even get a date to start their off-the-job training in either further education or technological universities. It is higher again for certain apprentices such as electricians. I am frustrated at the lack of progress we are making in this area, but not half as frustrated as the apprentices themselves.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2022-12-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:22+00:00
Sitting date: 2022-12-01