Rose Conway-Walsh presses minister over 10,000 apprentices waiting

Minister, I am inquiring about the status of the apprenticeship waiting list as they are, the number of apprentices who are waiting for off-the-job training and the number who have been waiting for over a year, in March this year after the beginning of the pandemic there were 6,928 apprentices on a waiting list to access off-the-job training, by May that had increased to over 9,000 apprentices, apprentices I have spoken to feel abandoned, they feel that apprenticeships are being talked about into the future, into the future but this is happening for them right here and right now, thank you. Thanks Deputy for the question and just to assure the Deputy and apprentices that they are not being abandoned and it is something 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, it is these programmes that were most impacted by the shutdown of on-site learning activity in 2020 and 2021, given the practical nature of apprenticeships, training centres and workshops having been closed for 9 of the last 14 months. End of May figures indicated that over 10,000 apprentices were waiting for access to phases 2, 4 and 6 off-the-job training, of these 3,500 craft apprentices have been waiting for more than 12 months. Craft apprentices were prioritised for a return to on-site learning on the 8th of March 2021. Delivery of off-the-job phases is proceeding and will continue over the summer subject to public health advice with restricted numbers. This approach will assist institutions and providers in preparing and organising the safe return of larger numbers in the autumn. The government is committed to a significant increase in on-site attendance in the tertiary education sector in the next academic year following consultation with the sectoral stakeholders and following government approval we published a safe return plan to on-site further and higher education for years 21 and 22. The plan reflects the essential nature of further and higher education and training including apprenticeships. It provides for a comprehensive on-site activity for the next academic year with almost full-scale activities on-site. To support the plan, the sector has developed a pack of actions and commitments to ensure that return is safe with specific reference to the issue of backlogs. Under this pack, institutions and providers have committed to addressing backlogs and deferring learning outcomes. Similarly, stakeholder bodies have committed to engaging with institutions and providers to achieve significant increases to on-site teaching, learning and assessment. Thank you Minister. Minister, you are really telling me that the situation has got even worse than it was in May. That we are now at 10,000 for phases 2, 4 and 6. I am really quite shocked at that. I know you are saying that things will be fixed in the autumn, but again it is like we will all have jammed tomorrow. I would really need to see, and I know there is not time here today, to see a really detailed, a very detailed plan for the autumn in that. This has serious implications, not only for their educations, but for their income. This is no fault of their own. Many apprenticeships would be trapped on apprentice wages for years longer than they should be. Despite the amazing efforts of administrators and teaching staff across the country, apprentices are being let down and we really, really need to address this. I am quite shocked at those figures. I have been in contact with numerous apprentices and they have been unable to access the off-the-job training to complete and advance their apprenticeships. It is quite shocking that the hero now is not being dealt with. Minister Turi. 感謝. Minister Turi Thanks. Just to reiterate again that, nobody has been abandoned, so what has being done to rectify the issue? To date, two million in capital expenditure has been allocated to SULLIS and the Higher Education Authority, to facilitate an additional four thousand craft apprenticeship places places across the system 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 be provisions for on-site presence for apprentices over the summer months, appropriate protective measures will be put in place and numbers on site will be controlled. This approach to returning to on-site over the summer period will assist institutions and providers in organising and managing a safe return of larger numbers in the autumn. An oversight group is now in place comprising of Solace, the ETBs and SIP2 Reps. The group is overseeing the development of an emergency approach to training for the three programmes with the longest waiting lists which are electrical and plumbing. Minister, maybe you could clarify what are your targets for September in terms of what will be done over the summer. This week I was contacted by a young man from Mayo currently working as an apprentice, a plumber. He has not been able to access the phase four training in his apprenticeship. This means he will be stuck on apprenticeship wages, possibly longer than the four years it should take. No other cohort of students are treated in the same way and apprentices should not be undervalued in this way. It's given the complete wrong message. We want to attract people to apprenticeships, we want to do all Ireland apprenticeships, we want to create equity and parity in terms of apprenticeships and the way we are dealing with this is not good enough. So I want you to tell me what are your targets for September, what will that 10,000 look like then and what will it look like in October because apprentices need assurance right here right now. They need to get on with their lives, they need to get on with their learning, they need to get on with their training, they need to get on with their earnings and we need to facilitate them to be able to do that with equity and with fairness. Thank you. Minister, to conclude. Thanks. So I was alluding to the oversight group which comprise of SOLAS, ETB and SIP2 and a revised emergency curriculum and assessments which will be 18 weeks long rather than the existing 12-week program will be delivered in a blended approach. Three technical teams have been put in place to devise an emergency curriculum over the coming weeks and it's intended to pilot elements of the approach in August for full rollout in September and across 2022. The objective is to train an additional 50% of apprentices in these three largest programs over an annual basis. Now you mentioned in relation to phases four and six which are our institutes of technology and our technological universities, a substantial portion of the initial additional capacity being developed for phases four and six will come on stream in September and subject to final confirmation it is intended to facilitate all phase six electrical plumbing apprentices delayed by nine months or more over training for training in September and in addition it is expected that the vast majority of the equivalent phase four apprentices waiting nine months plus will be scheduled at that point. Thank you Minister. And we'll send you on the remainder of the reply to give you the up-to-date on that Deputy. Thank you. Thank you.