Earlier this month, Ireland took the next step in the process of upgrading and updating its Apprenticeship Scheme to try and make it more relevant to the 21st century with the formation of an Apprenticeship Council. The current scheme covers 26 apprenticeships with a heavy focus on the construction sector in areas such as plumbing, carpentry & joinery, brick and stone laying, plastering, painting & decorating and floor & wall tiling. The full list, which also includes Print Media and Farriery (the making and fitting of horseshoes to prepared feet), can be found here.
Announcing the establishment of the Apprenticeship Council, minister for education and skills Jan O’Sullivan TD described it as “an excellent basis for renewing the apprenticeship system in Ireland. I am determined to see apprenticeships becoming a strong, relevant, quality model of learning in both further and higher education and training across a wide and diverse set of trades and sectors”. The council will seek to “map out the sectors where new apprenticeships can make a real difference to both employers and future employees”, she added.
Irish business group IBEC was quick to welcome the establishment of the Apprenticeship Council. Head of Education and Social Policy Tony Donohoe said the existing apprenticeship system“does not reflect the broad skill needs of the Irish economy. A new model has the potential to boost skill levels across the economy and help get people into quality, sustainable jobs”.
The notion of apprenticeships could challenge a certain intellectual snobbery attached to elements within the IT sector that believe only people with degrees or masters need apply
He stressed it was vital for companies to be involved in the design of curricula and the delivery of programmes to ensure the continuing relevance of qualifications in a rapidly changing labour market. “On-going economic changes requires a flexible system, where the terms of the apprenticeship depends on the needs of the specific sector. The council provides a structure to create new apprenticeships rapidly, and to react to emerging needs and target resources towards sectors with high potential for growth,”Donohoe commented.
There’s no doubt the apprenticeship scheme needs reform. As the Education and Training Boards Ireland noted in its submission to the Department of Education and Skills on the future of apprenticeship in Ireland in August 2013, the number and range of designated apprenticeships in Ireland is much lower than in the rest of the Europe. In addition, they were “confined to technical occupations in construction, engineering, the motor and electrical trades, and printing”whereas in the stronger economies of Northern Europe, apprenticeship covered a much wider range of activities in areas such as retail, financial services, health care and office administration.
“It is instructive to note,”the submission’s authors wrote, “that one of the world’s foremost economic powers, Germany, has some 340 apprenticeships compared to 26 in Ireland. In Germany apprenticeship is the route into work and further career development for nearly two-thirds of all young people while in Ireland apprenticeship only accounts for approximately 2% of all school leavers”. In Ireland, the number of apprenticeships per 1,000 people employed was a mere 11 compared to 40 in Germany, 39 in Australia and 33 in Austria.
The report warned that if Ireland continued “to restrict apprenticeship training to the current range of trades, the capability of the apprenticeship model to build workforce capacity will remain confined to a relatively small minority of school leavers”.
A review of apprenticeship training in Ireland, undertaken for the Department of Education and Skills by an independent group chaired by Kevin Duffy, chairperson of the Labour Court (published in January 2014) agreed that there was “an over-reliance on a narrow group of trades, mainly in the construction sector”. It stated this had resulted in a “heavily gendered approach attracting few female participants”with high costs.
For review
Submissions to the review suggested that widening the scope of apprenticeships into areas such as business administration, ICT, social care, hospitality and financial services would help improve gender balance. The submissions also highlighted “the potential for apprenticeships in ICT, retail, hospitality, business administration, medical devices, sport and leisure programmes, childcare and social care, financial services, accounting, hairdressing, and beauty care sectors”.
For our purposes, the suggestion that apprenticeship schemes could be extended to ICT should be a welcome development at a time when employers frequently complain of a shortage of skilled workers in this industry. The only difficulty I foresee is that our industry’s perception of itself as fast-moving and ever-changing (which others might describe as “short-termism”) could lead to a cultural clash with the ethos of apprenticeship which is founded on the belief certain trades, while subject to change, have a long-term value and durability that makes them worth the investment of government, employers and young people. In addition, the notion of apprenticeships could challenge a certain intellectual snobbery attached to elements within the IT sector that believe only people with degrees or masters need apply.
To make apprenticeships work, employers need to be in for the long haul, not floating above the fray, ever-ready with suggestions about what needs to be done but never willing to do whatever is necessary on their part to make it happen. In other words, we need to be conscious that an apprenticeship scheme is a shared responsibility between government, employer and apprentice. Employers will need to support apprenticeship schemes not just with words but, when the time comes, by taking people on. Hopefully they will because by helping to confer apprenticeship on ICT they will be part of its transition from an emerging industry to an established and permanent heavyweight in the employment landscape.
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