Of course it is a concern. The level of dropout from any course is a concern but it is not exclusive to apprenticeships. There are turnover and different dropout rates throughout our third level sector. That is just one of the challenges. It is about choice as well. Sometimes, people make a career choice which is not suited to them or does not work out. Our job is to identify the apprenticeships and gaps in the labour force, to identify the skills needs and to work with the employers and consortia on that. We also …

Some 17 apprenticeships are in development and this will be of interest to Deputy Stanton as well. A further 19 apprenticeships are at an exploratory stage. They are wide and varied and include dental technician, accountancy, artificial intelligence, barbering, beauty and engineering. Deputy Moynihan specifically referenced childcare. The apprenticeship council, SOLAS, and staff at my Department have met and communicated with representatives of the early childcare sector on a number of occasions between 2019 and 20…

I am delighted to take up where my colleague left off and comment on the budget for our Department. By any yardstick, since its inception, this new Department has hit the ground running and made an impact. It has mattered most to students, who are the most important stakeholders that we strive to serve within this new Department. The total spend of €374 million is a significant investment in people's lives and livelihoods to help us work our way out of the pandemic and deliver better labour market skills and upskil…

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this important matter. The expert group report of 2016, entitled Investing in National Ambition: A Strategy for Funding Higher Education, confirmed that higher education makes a hugely positive contribution to the development of individuals, employers, society and the State. The report concluded that the approach to funding at the time was unsustainable and that substantial increases in investment in higher education must be made to ensure the sector can remain viable and provide t…

Unfortunately, I am not in a position to give the Senator a publication date today. Suffice to say that, apart from my previous opening remarks, there is a serious commitment in the programme for Government on addressing the sustainability and the funding model of our higher education sector. That has also formed part of the negotiations and the discussions between the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in advance of budge…

There is a big difference between a nightclub and a delivery ward.

A key strength of the apprenticeship model, as highlighted in the recent action plan for apprenticeship, is that it is a demand-led approach to meeting workforce and skill requirements in our economy. In the case of craft apprenticeship, for example, the number of places is determined by employers, with off-the-job training provided to all registered apprentices. Apprenticeships established since 2016 have one or more intakes per annum, with the take-up determined by employer engagement and available apprentice job…

About 60 different apprenticeship schemes are available and a further 18 schemes are in development across a range of areas, including some that the Deputy mentioned. I take the Deputy's example about school bus drivers. This is something that I have raised with the Minister for Education, Deputy Foley. That is an acute issue because drivers are prohibited from doing this work on reaching 70 years, although that is a separate issue that should be dealt with. As I said, some €198.4 million is available through the n…

The Deputy is 100% right. Along with the Minister, Deputy Harris, and our Government colleagues, I have set out to bring apprenticeships into the mainstream - into the middle of our further and higher education offerings. The Deputy mentioned guidance counsellors. We are in discussions with the CAO, which will also bring guidance counsellors into the equation, to give people the opportunity to apply for an apprenticeship through the CAO. Part of the apprenticeship action plan, to which I alluded earlier, is the est…

I will address the Deputy's remarks. She is right with regard to regional skills needs. One of the functions of the new national apprenticeships office will be to identify such needs and to liaise with all relevant stakeholders. The Deputy cited the road haulage industry in that regard. We have seen that the new sector-specific apprenticeships we have developed, led by consortia, are often specific to particular parts of the country. The education and training boards in these parts of the country take on the challe…

I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh for her question. I assure the Deputy and apprentices that apprentices are not being abandoned and that it is a matter that we are acutely aware of. Craft apprenticeships account for 25 of the 61 existing available apprenticeship programmes. Off-the-job training for these programmes is delivered in training centres or institutes of technology and technological universities. These were the programmes most impacted by the shutdown of on-site learning activity in 2020 and 2021. Given the pr…

I reiterate that nobody is being abandoned. What is being done to rectify the issue? To date, €2 million has been allocated in capital expenditure to SOLAS and the Higher Education Authority to facilitate 4,000 additional craft apprenticeship places across the system. This is in addition to €12 million already allocated to support additional classes and teaching capacity to ameliorate the Covid-19 measures. Spaces arising from these measures will begin to come on stream in the second half of this year. There will b…

I was alluding to the oversight group, which comprised SOLAS, ETBs and SIPTU. Revised emergency curriculum and assessments, which will be 18 months long rather than the existing 12-week programme, will be delivered in a blended approach. Three technical teams are being put in place to devise an emergency curriculum over the coming weeks, and it is intended to pilot elements of the approach in August for full roll-out in September and across 2022. The objective is to train an additional 50% of apprentices in the thr…

I move: That Dáil Éireann approves the following Order in draft: Technological Universities Act 2018 (Section 36) (Appointed Day) Order 2021, copies of which have been laid in draft form before Dáil Éireann on 11th June, 2021.

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, as it gives me the opportunity to set out for her, the House and the people of Cavan and elsewhere in the Border region the position as regards Cavan Institute and further education provision for Cavan town. I acknowledge the Deputy's strong advocacy for and championing of the cause of Cavan Institute and the region. She has raised this matter a number of times in the Dáil and directly with my Department, the Minister, Deputy Harris, and me. Cavan Institute was establishe…

I am very happy to take up Deputy Smyth's invitation to visit Cavan and the barracks site and, indeed, any other sites she deems appropriate, in order to press the case and help assist in the delivery of what is required. The development of the barracks site for Cavan Institute will enable delivery of a range of post-leaving certificate, PLC, programmes, including, but not limited to, music production, science, beauty, sports, animal care, sports therapy and general skills programmes. The new further education and …

I thank the Deputy for the question. Local training initiatives, LTIs, are training and work experience programmes carried out in partnership with community and voluntary organisations. They provide a basis for the 16 education and training boards, ETBs, to contract with community bodies to provide a service initiative in a locality where there are identified community needs. Training provision is intended to be sufficiently flexible to address the identified need and is typically six to 12 months in duration. Due …

I thank Deputy Durkan for his supplementary question. I do not have the county-by-county analysis which the Deputy is requesting, but we can ask for that and have the information furnished to him. Turning to the percentage of people who complete their courses, and despite the impact of Covid-19, as I mentioned in my initial reply, the numbers who completed or partially completed their courses were approximately 85% and upwards. That was consistent with previous years. Regarding why the remaining percentage of parti…

Our Department continually liaises with the higher education authority and the ETBs in relation to the workings and runnings of our local training initiatives. As I stated in my earlier contribution, these initiatives are a recognition of local needs and they are a response to local needs. In the main, local training providers are also used to deliver them, so they are local collaborations to addressing an issue. SOLAS is the authority responsible for providing the funding for our local training initiatives. In 202…

I thank the Deputies for their contributions to this debate. I know that access to education is an issue close to the heart of many Members. As the Minister, Deputy Harris, outlined, since the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science was formed last August we have been working to build a strong, flexible and inclusive further and higher education sector for Ireland. Our statement of strategy sets out both our vision of what the further and higher education sector should be and th…