Dail Éireann · 2021-07-08
Part of Priority Questions
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4. Deputy Danny Healy-Rae asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will ensure that sufficient funding is put in place to provide for additional apprenticeships for students given that all courses are now oversubscribed as there is significant demand for apprenticeships and this demand needs to be addressed and in view of the fact that employers need to be subsidised adequately to ensure they will accommodate such students in the workplace. [37067/21]
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. The detailed and comprehensive Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025, which was launched on 19 April last, sets out new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships to make apprenticeship accessible to employers and learners.
There is a very substantial allocation of resources to apprenticeships drawing on the resources provided by employers through the training levy into the national training fund. The 2021 budget allocation for apprenticeship is €198.4 million, which is a 7% increase on the 2020 allocation.
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Will the Minister ensure that sufficient funding is put in place to provide for additional apprenticeships for students given that all courses are now oversubscribed as there is significant demand for apprenticeships and this demand needs to be addressed and in view of the fact that employers need to be subsidised adequately to ensure they will accommodate such students in the workplace?
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 jobs provided by employers.
The detailed and comprehensive Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025, which was launched on 19 April last, sets out new ways of structuring, funding and promoting apprenticeships to make apprenticeship accessible to employers and learners. The actions set out in the plan seek to deliver on a target of 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per annum by 2025.
The Government is committed under the action plan to working with employers to promote, enable and support the recruitment of apprentices. Measures to support employer engagement in apprenticeship, particularly within the SME sector, will be integral to the delivery of the target of 10,000 new apprentice registrations per annum by 2025. These financial and non-financial measures will include an annual grant for employers not benefiting from the existing mechanism of State-funded craft apprentice training allowances for off-the-job training. This employer grant will be administered by the new national apprenticeship office and the level of grant will be announced by the end of the year.
There is a very substantial allocation of resources to apprenticeships drawing on the resources provided by employers through the training levy into the national training fund. The 2021 budget allocation for apprenticeship is €198.4 million, which is a 7% increase on the 2020 allocation.
I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I wish to thank the Minister for incorporating apprenticeship into third level as it is a very important provision. However, there is a severe lack of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, blocklayers, plasterers and mechanics in all the trades. There are severe shortages of skilled drivers for machinery excavators, bulldozers, dumpers and lorries. School bus drivers are hardly to be got at all. I am appealing for the Government to go harder at this because we need a skilled, trained workforce in all areas, including building houses or commercial premises. We need more young people coming into this. There is €3,000 for employers until December but it is not adequate. We need that to continue further into the future.
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 national training fund, which includes the cost of the apprenticeship incentivisation scheme that the Deputy alluded to. In 2021, some €12 million in Covid-related costs for additional classes was provided, compared to an allocation of €169 million the previous year.
I thank the Minister of State for his understanding of the rule that applies to people at the age of 70. It is very severe and many good drivers are left behind. We need to have more young people coming into all areas. I believe SOLAS should be resourced to manage the registration for employers. Its key focus should be to link employers and apprenticeships and to develop relationships around them. Career guidance teachers need to do more to advise and encourage youngsters at second level to take up the trades and go into these areas, and advise them how to become involved in the prosperity of our country into the future. We need young people to get involved in all these areas of construction, etc., to help our country to grow.
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 establishment of a national apprenticeship office.
It will oversee all of the apprenticeships, including the pre-2016 apprenticeships for the craftspeople, bricklayers, plasterers and electricians, to which the Deputy referred, and the new ones that have been developed since then. They will have an oversight role and a liaison role in respect of SOLAS, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, and all the stakeholders in the apprenticeship space. They will co-ordinate all of that, as requested by the Deputy.