Educational snobbery is causing our skills shortages

Covid taught us the value of manual work. Now, pay and conditions need to catch up to make home-building, caring and other essential roles attractive to young people 

Apprenticeships still have an ‘image problem’ in Ireland. We need to give apprenticeships a qualification equivalent to a degree to help change perceptions. 

A total of 83,803 individuals have applied for a CAO college place for the coming year, a figure very close to the all-time record number of 84,526 CAO applications last year. Most are now anxiously awaiting the first round of CAO offers. 

Yet a Core Research report for the construction industry last month found  63% of construction companies were struggling to find workers to build homes — with 46% of industry professionals noting that plasterers are rare, as are carpenters (31%). This is contributing to significant inflation in the cost of construction work.