TUI urges revamp to apprenticeship system

A RESTRUCTURED apprenticeship system is urgently needed to ensure thousands of partly-trained tradespeople can finish their qualifications and help the return to economic growth, a teachers’ union has said.

Ahead of next month’s Government jobs initiative, the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) is proposing a change to the current system which has left more than 7,000 people in limbo as their jobs were lost during apprenticeship, particularly those in trades linked to the construction industry.

The union’s members include 4,000 lecturers at institutes of technology (ITs), where part of the apprentice training is delivered, while employers pay a set wage to the trainees.