Apprenticeships offer a chance to earn as you learn

8,500 firms employ apprentices in Ireland, 35,000 employers have engaged with apprenticeships over the last 10 years

Earn as you learn: SOLAS Generation Apprenticeship Competition winner and Pfizer apprentice Frank Gillen shows at a 3D A Frame sculpture to An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris, in Pfizer Grange Castle. Also in the photo is John Sourke, site lead, Pfizer Grange Castle.

The wide range of courses on offer as well as the opportunity to earn as you learn is attracting more and more people to apprenticeships, according to the head of the National Apprenticeship Office.

There are two types of apprenticeships in Ireland — traditional craft apprenticeships and new, employer-led apprenticeships — with 66 programmes currently on offer.