This question is on apprenticeships and the apprenticeship programme, particularly how employers can be encouraged to participate in the programme and how the retention of apprentices in the system afterwards can be accommodated.

I thank the Deputy for his question. We are making significant progress in realising the ambition of the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025. A key objective is to make apprenticeships more attractive to employers and learners and to ensure continued engagement. The progress to date includes: the establishment of the National Apprenticeship Office, the appointment of its first director and the initiation of its work plan; the removal of legislative barriers to the development of apprenticeship programmes in professions, enabled by the approval of the Oireachtas of the Higher Education Authority Bill 2022; the establishment of the National Apprenticeship Alliance, representing a broad range of partners involved in apprenticeship; the imminent establishment of the equity of access subcommittee, to help make apprenticeship more reflective of the national population; securing resources for access measures, including a bursary programme for underrepresented groups; the introduction of the apprenticeship employer grant of €2,000 and a gender bursary grant of €2,666; a significant increase in the number of new apprenticeship registrations in 2021 - a near 40% increase on the 2019 figures; the allocation of €17.2 million of additional capital investment for SOLAS and the Higher Education Authority, HEA, building on the €20 million apprenticeship capital fund investment in 2021; and the inclusion of apprenticeship options on the CAO website from November 2021.

Due to these measures and other supports aimed at simplifying the process for employers, there are currently almost 8,500 employers and 25,000 apprentices. We are confident that these numbers will increase as apprenticeships can help companies to compete in the modern marketplace and make their organisations more competitive. In addition to building the company's skills base, providing quality training helps with staff loyalty and retention, thus adding more to the benefits of apprenticeships.

The figure of a 40% increase in apprenticeship registrations in 2021 sounds impressive. That means basically that there were 16,000 apprentices last year and there are 25,000 this year. Much still has to be done to make sure that it works. I sense that there is a problem among the public where employers do not see the value in apprenticeships. There is a certain amount of risk from an employer’s point of view in the apprentice moving on after they have taken them on and trained them for four years. That is an issue that will have to be addressed by a combination of employers paying apprentices properly and then paying them properly when they qualify. However, there has to be the ability to show an employer that it works and has a value for them as well. That is the big problem. What measures will be taken to ensure apprentices will be retained in their apprenticeships and that employers will offer apprenticeships as well, because that is vitally important?

The Deputy rightly outlined the issues with retention rates in our action plan for apprenticeships. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform carried out a review of the cost of apprenticeships in 2019. It highlighted the need to standardise the cost data collection. Basically, inconsistent and decentralised reporting in areas such as costs and tracking of apprentices means that the information to support the assessment of spend on apprenticeship was unavailable, retention rates are not recorded centrally and the impact of programmes in terms delivering employer and apprentice requirements had not yet been assessed at a central level. That is now changing, obviously, with the National Apprenticeship Office.

Apprentice recruitment is heavily linked to economic activity, with immediate impacts on recruitment and retention rates where there is a decline in activity. Under the action plan, by the end of 2022, the National Apprenticeship Office will establish a performance framework to assess efficiency and effectiveness of apprenticeships to include monitoring of: employer and apprentice mix in terms of employer size; apprentice gender, ethnicity, age, disability and socioeconomic background; apprentice retention rates; and an annual survey of apprentice employers in educational institutions and consortia. Separately, SOLAS is examining its apprenticeship data systems with a view to enhancing data collection and the analysis capabilities arising from it.

We agree with the Deputy. The issue he raised is valid. It is something that we are conscious of and we have spoken to the National Apprenticeship Office and the director about making it a priority. The whole apprenticeship space has changed so much in the past number of years, even in terms of the new apprenticeships that have been added, particularly the consortia apprenticeships, which are a collaboration between the sectors, the employers in particular within the sectors and the training providers.

We are all learning and we are all on a journey. However, we are making significant progress. There will be learnings and we accept that. There has to be a comprehensive feedback and information flow in terms of why people drop out. There will always be people who will drop out for various reasons and obviously we need to try to minimise that. The key to that will be enabling people to make informed choices when they are pursuing the earn-as-you-learn career path of an apprenticeship also.