Skills shortages in languages and apprenticeships highlighted 

Welding and other trades have had difficulty attracting apprentices, with red tape blamed for some of the issues involved.

Ireland is facing skills shortages in both modern languages which many employers are looking for, and craft apprenticeships, which are needed to address the housing and climate crisis.

The Oireachtas education committee met on Tuesday to continue its discussion on Leaving Cert reform, hearing from employers’ groups and policy experts.

Business group Ibec said it wants to see a move towards continuous assessment and portfolios as it believes they capture the experience of learning more widely than traditional exams. 

In recent years there has been a “growing demand for language skills”, according to Meadhbh Costello, IBEC policy executive.

“However, we don't really have the skills available in Ireland to meet these needs,” she told the committee. 

From a business perspective, it is really critical that we grow the number of people who are engaging in modern languages, as well as diversify the languages that they're actually engaging in.

The impact of Brexit and globalisation on driving demand for the learning of different languages, as well as the challenges such as a perceived difficulty in learning languages, and a shortage of teachers, should be examined, she said.

Separately, the committee heard from Tony Donohoe, chair of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN). 

Deputy Paul Kehoe, chair of the committee, asked about increasing the number of apprenticeships we have.  

"There's a huge amount of investment needed in our colleges if we are to double the number of apprenticeships, if we are to take a serious look at the number that we have and apprenticeships that we really need," Mr Kehoe said. 

Educational attainment diversity

Mr O'Donohue said Ireland has one of the highest progression rates to higher education in the EU. “It's very difficult to persuade people that educational attainment is anything other than higher education.” 

However, he believes it is possible to encourage more take up by highlighting that the progression pathways can lead to an honours degree, a masters degree or a Ph.D. 

He later said: “This is such a critical issue in terms of the craft apprenticeship. 

We need 33,000 housing units. At the moment we have about 40,000 workers in the sector. We'll need 25,000 in the next five years, and it will peak at 80,000. 

"Between the Housing for All strategy and the climate action plan, we are going to require huge numbers of workers in this space. At one level migration might be part of the answer, but I'd much prefer to see stimulation of apprenticeship opportunities.”

Rose Conway Walsh, Sinn Fein TD, said there is currently a backlog of around 10,000 apprentices waiting to do their apprenticeship.  Meadhbh Costello of Ibec said this backlog needs to be addressed "particularly if we're going to tackle some of the challenges which businesses are now facing in the economy". 

There are also a number of fundamental issues around apprenticeships that Ibec hopes will be addressed by the new National Action plan, she added. This includes "cutting the red tape" and raising the profile of apprenticeships among employers.