Danny Healy-Rae presses for more apprenticeships amid skills shortage
Danny Healy-Rae urged the minister to increase apprenticeship places and extend employer subsidies to address oversubscription and widespread skills shortages. He demanded more resources for apprenticeships, longer employer incentives and stronger links between employers, schools and the National Apprenticeship Office.
Summary of demands
Danny Healy-Rae called on the minister to ensure extra funding for additional apprenticeships, to subsidise employers for longer than December and to expand places to meet high demand. He emphasised that all courses are oversubscribed and that the current supports are insufficient.
Apprenticeship action plan and targets
The speech referenced the detailed action plan for apprenticeship 2021-2025 launched on 19 April, which aims to structure funding and promotion to make apprenticeships more accessible. The plan targets 10,000 apprenticeship registrations per annum by 2025 and proposes a new National Apprenticeship Office to oversee schemes.
Funding and employer supports
Danny Healy-Rae highlighted funding measures in the plan, including an employer grant for those not covered by existing craft apprentice allowances, to be administered through the National Apprenticeship Office with the grant level to be announced by year-end. He cited a substantial allocation through the National Training Fund - 198.4 million in 2021, a 7% increase on the previous allocation, and noted 12 million for COVID-related costs for additional classes.
Skills shortages and education links
He outlined acute shortages in trades - electricians, plumbers, carpenters, block layers, plasters, mechanics - and a lack of trained drivers for machinery, lorries and school buses. He urged that SOLID be resourced to manage employer registration and to link employers with apprentices, and called for career guidance teachers and the CAO process to better promote trades at second level. He also raised concerns about the prohibition on drivers over 70, noting it contributes to the driver shortage.
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Task the Minister to ensure that sufficient extra funding is put in place to provide for additional apprenticeships for students. All courses are now oversubscribed and there is a huge demand for apprenticeships and this demand needs to be addressed. Also employers need to be subsidised adequately and longer than December to ensure that 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. For example, in the case of craft apprenticeship, the number of places is determined by employers with off-the-job training provided to all registered apprenticeships. 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 launched on the 19th of 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 measures encompass both financial and non-financial and will include an annual grant to employers not benefiting from existing mechanism of state-funded craft apprentice training allowances for off-the-job training. This employer grant will be administered through the new National Apprenticeship Office and the level of grant will be announced by the year-end. There is a very substantial allocation of resources to apprenticeships drawing on 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. Thank you. Danny Hilary. Danny Hilary. Mr. for the reply and I want to thank Minister Harris for incorporating apprenticeship into tour level, a very important provision. However, there is a severe lack of electricians, plumbers, carpenters, block layers, plasters, mechanics in all the trades. And with a severe shortage of skilled drivers for machinery excavators, bulldozers, dumpers, lorries, school bus drivers are hardly to be got at all, Minister. And I am appealing to you now to put it, to go harder at this and to ensure, because we need a skilled, trained workforce in all the areas of building houses, whatever it is, commercial building. We need more young people coming into the scene and again I say Minister, there is 3,000 there for employers until December. Thank you Deputy. That is not adequate. We need to have that continued into the future. You will get a chance to come back in. Minister. Thanks Deputy. You will be aware that there is about 60 apprenticeships currently available, 60 different apprenticeship schemes and there is a further 18 apprenticeships in development at the moment across a whole range of areas, many of them including what you have mentioned. And I would take on board the example that you gave in relation to school bus drivers. And indeed that was something which I raised myself with Minister for Education Norma Foley. There is an acute issue in relation to that because drivers are prohibited upon reaching 70 years of age, which I think is a separate issue. But, which should be dealt with. But just to say in relation to the funding for apprenticeships, as I said to you, there is 198.4 million euros which is made available through the National Training Fund. And that includes the cost of the apprenticeship incentivisation scheme which you alluded to. And in 2021, 12 million euros of COVID related costs for additional classes was provided. And that compares to an allocation of 169 million euros in the previous year. Thank you Minister. Thank you Minister for your understanding of the 70-year rule because that is very severe and many good drivers are left behind. However, we need to have more young people come into all areas. And I believe that SOLID should be resourced to manage the registration for employers. And the key focus of SOLID should be to link employers and apprenticeships and to grow relationships around them. And I believe that career guidance teachers need to do more work in advising and encouraging youngsters at second level to take up the trades and to go into these areas with them. And advise them of the production of how they could be involved in the prosperity of our country into the future. Because we do need young people to get involved and be involved in all these areas of construction, of whatever it is that we need to grow our country. Thanks Deputy, you are 100% right and that is exactly what Minister Harris, I and the Government have been setting out to achieve. Is to mainstream apprenticeships right into the middle of the landscape of our further and higher education offerings. We are in discussions with the CAO office, you alluded to guidance counsellors, that will bring guidance counsellors into the equation also. In terms of offering people an opportunity to apply for an apprenticeship through the CAO ultimately. That is something that we are working on. But as part of the apprenticeship action plan, which I alluded to in my earlier reply to you, is the establishment of a national apprenticeship office. Which will oversee all of the apprenticeships, the pre-2016's which were the crafts, the bricklayers, the plasters, the electricians that you refer to. And the new ones that have been developed since then. And they will have an oversight role and a liaison role in terms of SOLAS, the higher education authority and all the stakeholders in the apprenticeship space. And they will coordinate all of that which is what you are asking for. Thank you. Moving, Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving. Moving.
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