Brendan Smith Urges Apprenticeship Access for Youth Reach Graduates

Thank you very much for hearing and apologies I missed the earlier part of the meeting due to another meeting I was attending. Could I just pick up on two or three points that my colleague Deputy John Connolly mentioned there, about the difficulty that may face young people who want to be apprentices in getting an employer. I'm thinking of the young people from vulnerable homes, from homes where there wasn't a history of education or employment. I fear in small communities the difficulties, the challenges facing that would be apprentices. So anything that can be done to ensure that they are accommodated would be very important. Deputy Connolly also mentioned about healthcare assistance. I know in my own county, Cavan Institute, we have a healthcare assistance course with the ETB and some of the private nursing homes and that was launched some years ago. It's going well to my knowledge and I'm sure it can be expanded but the institute has pushed it as much as it can and has been successful. I know that local employers welcome it as well. Just with regard to people again from households where there are particular challenges, I often think that youth reach is not given the credit that it deserves for the second chance education. I know in my own constituency in Cavan Monon, we've had a very strong youth reach programme for many, many years and our Oireachtas colleague Senator Jeremy Wilson was the coordinator in Cavan and from its early days it has been extremely successful. Does the apprenticeship programme target the graduates of the youth reach programme? I've seen many of those young people go on to successful careers, go on to further education, particularly in Cavan Monon Institute, maybe go to Dundalk or Stigo Institute subsequently and get very good careers. People whose education career in its early days was very poor and looked very, very bleak. So I think for that point of view, youth reach deserves a particular emphasis on ensuring that those people that leave there, that they go on to useful careers. Just again, and apologies if these issues have already been covered, Deputy Kenny and again Deputy Connolly mentioned about the need for more trades people in our local authorities and you refer to the public service in general. Do you coordinate with the county and city management association in regards to the needs of the local authorities, all of the local authorities throughout the country? Are there an adequate spread of training facilities in all regions? Do you know, traditionally in the past, I know that we, people in my county constituent, they go to Dundalk or Stigo, they still do, but we have some training and some apprenticeship facilities now, thankfully locally, in our own two counties. And I have to say, there's been a welcome emphasis in recent years on apprenticeships. Numbers have grown and complimented all of you and your organisation, what you have done to try to make it more flexible and more attractive. But obviously, it goes without saying that we need to achieve a lot more. Is there an apprenticeship element within the proposed new colleges of the future and further education? Are they aligned in Northern Ireland totally? And also, what cooperation and collaboration exists with training centres and colleges of further education in Northern Ireland? Thank you. Thank you. Can I come in on just one or two of those, Deputy? Thank you. And going back to Deputy Connolly as well. First of all, on the healthcare system, the Level 5 programme that you mentioned in Cabin Institute is run throughout a number of ETBs. It's an excellent programme. It's at Level 5 and included in that is palliative care and it is an extremely effective programme. So it is there and it's run in many locations. I think the apprenticeship model was a way to look at how we would increase and I think that still should be looked at because I think there's an opportunity there. So just to say that it is an excellent programme, you're absolutely right. In relation to youth reach and I suppose, as you know, in terms of our schools, 31 schools and in my own location and similar in others throughout the country and many DASH schools but also, for example, we have 10 youth reach centres, three community training centres all under the youth reach programme and we specifically run a targeted approach for the graduates and those in training in youth reach to help them with their decisions and how to navigate the pathway into apprenticeship or into further education and training. While that's something we do in our own region, I gave a few examples of it earlier on, it is actually probably replicated in all ETBs. I have no doubt, and Kevin Monaghan, Mayo Sligo, Leethram, Walford, Wexford as well and, you know, to assist with the progress because many of those young people will have a major award at level four and they are ready to take the step to level five, level six and beyond and keep going. So it is something we do absolutely and with lots of examples of that and how we do it and also how we kind of maybe assist with a, you know, a pre-apprenticeship in relation to that. So we run those as well to help people going from youth reach into the pre-apprenticeship at level five in our colleges or training centres and then they can decide which is the right step for them in terms of apprenticeship. So we do that, that's important. Just to say that and then in relation to I know in terms of just the colleges and further education and training, the whole, I suppose, the demand in terms of apprenticeships and the different levels are incorporated under, I know in my own region, the College of Fet in Dublin, well, in the three county council areas that I represent and cover in terms of the region, you know, the apprenticeship is absolutely cornerstone along with all of the other part-time and full-time provision. But over to the involvement in Northern Ireland, it might be over to Mary. Just to add briefly, so we've been running a generation apprenticeship competition at second level for the last number of years and we've very deliberately targeted youth reach and community training centres as well. I actually started my career in that, working in a youth reach centre, so, you know, just huge, like I'm just so aware of the opportunities, that really focused effort that needs to be put in to provide those opportunities. So we actually had a, one of the winners of this year's competition was from youth reach in Mount Malik, two young men who actually developed a fantastic entry. They explored all sorts of apprenticeship opportunities and, and, and submitted it and, and, and won the award and we've, we've developed a video, they're going to be on a poster campaign. So just some of these, and I suppose the, the impact of that in that youth reach, but then more broadly is it's that message which is saying these opportunities are for you, you should be looking at them, you should be considering them and it's either going straight into apprenticeship or doing an access to apprenticeship course as well. So it's just, it's a group that, you know, it's just so important as we build and provide these opportunities for careers. And I'm sorry, just on your Northern Ireland point, like we do have really close ties. I'm actually, I'm meeting with Northern Ireland college colleagues on a Peace Plus bid. I think Tom's ETB is the experience of partnership projects and that. So it's, it's a big focus and on your FET college point, the whole idea of the FET college, you have a brilliant example in the Monaghan Institute. Cavan Institute is now going to be funded through the FET college of the future funding call. The whole idea is to break those old legacy kind of force training centers, college at FE, silos and make like put it all together in one really high quality learning environment that's just as good as any university that anyone can go to. And that's, that is the whole idea that apprenticeship is very much part of that. So. Very, very briefly. We have a country oriented college of the future and our, our management structure is around making sure that our training center apprenticeship is, is integrated along with our overall FET structure. And I mentioned earlier, we were involved in the development of some new apprenticeships in the Osloigalitam like many other ETBs. And we, we have some existing ones that were also collaborating providers. So in other words, there are apprenticeships that are coordinated by other entities or other ETBs or institutions and we're a collaborating delivery body. So for example, the accounting technician, we're, we're running that through the old college of further education and training, the, the national sales apprenticeship and digital marketing. And the digital marketing apprenticeship has about a dozen public service apprentices on it with a link person in, in the department of further and higher ed working and there's apprentices in about six departments from that apprenticeship. And we have, we're developing an immersive technology based apprenticeship through Sligo College of FET and a business operations apprenticeship through County Leithram College of FET. So they're just examples. And I think that I, my sense is that that's indicative of what's generally happening in the, in the sector, but I can't speak for the full sector. Maybe like, like, like Mary-Lyns or Andrew will be able to. On the Northern Ireland thing, likewise, we have close connections with Southwest College. And, uh, I know our colleagues in, in, in Donegal and I think in, in, in Donegal have close links and alliances with the colleges in the, in the north as well. Thank you.