Apprenticeship system reputation threatened by proposed changes, conference hears

Ireland has one of the most highly regarded craft apprenticeship systems in the world but threatens to undermine its success by abandoning collaboration between employers and unions, a conference has been told.
The National Apprenticeship Summit, run by the trade union Connect ahead of its biennial delegate conference in Athlone on Friday, heard from union officials, employers and international speakers.
They addressed how a shared desire of businesses and worker representatives to develop the best apprenticeships possible had been a cornerstone of the Irish system.
The event, which was attended by about 100 of the union’s apprentice members and some of the construction sector’s largest employers of craft workers, heard that a proposed move to a “consortia led” model would repeat the mistakes made in other countries.
“They have seen dropout rates in the UK increase from 17 per cent to 47 per cent with the number still rising, since they changed the system there” said Connect general secretary Paddy Kavanagh. “We don’t want to see a repeat of that here.”
More than 50 new apprenticeships across a wide range of sectors from hospitality to auctioneering to cyber security have been developed in recent years by the consortia model through which businesses and educational institutions are encouraged to identify particular skills needs and develop apprenticeships to address them.
Connect says however that long established traditional craft apprenticeships account for the vast majority of numbers in the system and that new programmes should be incorporated into existing structures rather than move long established ones to the new system.
“It has taken us more than 50 years to get to a point where our system is recognised all over the world as producing highly skilled craft workers. The new apprenticeships should come into the new model because it has been shown to work,” said Kavanagh. “I am yet to meet one major employer with a large number of apprentices who sees merit in the consortia model.”
Abigail Fulton, a former lobbyist for the Canadian construction industry who now leads a charity working to promote better skills training in that country, said the success of the apprenticeship system was rooted in its culture.
“We looked at systems around the world and the ones that were successful were the ones that nurtured that culture. Employers and unions…you need that balance to ensure that culture is kept alive.”
A number of speakers, including Michael Stone of the Designer Group, a significant employer of apprentices, said the sub-minimum wage rates for apprentices need to be abandoned given the rising age profile of those starting training and much more needs to be done to make apprenticeships attractive to female workers.
A survey conducted by Connect in recent months found 46 per cent of apprentices had been paid less than €7 an hour at some stage of the process.
“I don’t it’s right that any apprentice is earning less than the minimum wage,” said Mr Stone.