Apprenticeship Programmes
Dail Éireann — 2023-06-01
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I do not have that breakdown off the top of my head but from memory, approximately 6,000 of the current apprentices are in the craft area. That is roughly speaking where I would imagine we will land. There is a big push on developing craft apprenticeships and working with the construction and retrofitting sectors and the green economy because there are really key and acute issues there. I will definitely take up the Deputy's invitation to visit schools. I visited 80 secondary schools in the last 12 months. I feel really passionate, as I know the Deputy does, about getting into schools and showing these to young people as an opportunity. I am very pleased that taster apprenticeship courses, if I may call them that, have now been introduced in transition year in a number of schools. That should be happening in all schools as quickly as possible. I am very pleased to hear about that initiative with John Sisk & Sons, to which I pay tribute in that regard.
Yes, I want to do more on the terms and conditions and pay and support for our apprentices. Against that I would say that we have seen more people than ever before effectively now put their hands up to become apprentices. Apprentices are not in any way immune from the cost-of-living crisis, however. I am very eager to engage with them and their representative bodies between now and the budget to see how we can further support them.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2023-06-01/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:51:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2023-06-01