Earn and Learn: Soaring interest in apprenticeships
Promoting apprenticeships: Jennifer Treacy preparing pepper sauce for a Gourmet Style Burger at Gaelcholaiste Luimnigh TY as part of a Pre Apprenticeship taster programme for Schools delivered by Limerick and Clare ETB colleges, FET Hospitality Campus. Picture: Brian Arthur
Apprenticeships have a habit of launching great careers. Without them, the Sistine Chapel ceiling might have been de Vinci fresco-free.
Runway models might never have showcased the garments of Stella McCartney, or, unthinkably, the late Alexander McQueen. As for legendary actors, Michael Caine and Ian McKellen, had they never been apprenticed, might never have trodden the boards or delighted on screen, let alone been knighted.
There are good reasons why apprenticeships are still popular today. Apprentices earn while they learn. They hold a formal employment contract and receive a salary throughout their training, with fifty per cent or more of the learning taking place in the workplace.
In Ireland, 2023 was a year of unprecedented growth in apprenticeships and further education and training (FET), with more than 400,000 learners benefitting from those programmes.
Last year also saw a record 8,712 new apprenticeship registrations in Ireland, bringing to 27,470, the number of apprentices currently in training. As for the FET learner base, SOLAS figures confirm this increased by 17 per cent between 2022 and 2023.
Capital investment by the government of €53 million in the FET sector undoubtedly played a role in this growth. So too did the development of 12 FET Colleges of the Future projects.
Behind the statistics are learners of every age. One who is more au fait than most with both the CAO and non-CAO options available to them, is Catríona Rodgers, president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors (IGC) and guidance counsellor with Greenhills Community College.
“Today, apprenticeships provide fantastic options for many, including those who do not enjoy the traditional way of studying and those who would prefer to learn in the workplace. These learners are able to earn a wage and save, rather than spending whatever is available on student fees. For them, these options offer a different experience; one that’s well worth considering.
“It is not that one route is better than another,” she adds. “It’s all about options and which option is best for any particular learner. It’s good to know that in 6th year in secondary school, not all students are filling out just CAO forms. That increasingly, they might also be applying for a post leaving certificate course, while also applying for apprenticeships.”
Doubtless, this is a wholesome and happifying thought. One that begs the question: To what extent are these opportunities, equally and inclusively accessible to all?
After all, to avail of an earn while you learn opportunity, potential apprentices must know they exist.
When I ask Rodgers whether all students are getting the guidance counselling they need, she replies: “IGC members engage regularly with CPD and are well placed to advise those they work with. They also attend SOLAS-run workshops at our national conference each year.”
As for the level of access to guidance counsellors at mainstream schools, she says the level of access is very much equality based. “Anyone with additional educational needs would have the same access to the guidance counsellor as everyone else,” she says. “But those with higher needs may not perhaps be getting enough access. Their needs might not be able to be accommodated, because of the number of hours in the week.”
Rodgers says that in each autism class in a secondary school, there is an increased guidance quota. “IGC is advocating for additional hours per autism class in secondary schools to ensure equality of access to guidance counsellors for all learners,” says Rodgers.
“Equality is so important,” she continues. “Equality of access for people with additional educational needs to achieve their potential is vital, so they can get meaningful employment, the same as anybody else.”
She’s absolutely right. That’s why it was heartening in July of this year, when SOLAS, in partnership with the Laois & Offaly Education and Training Board, helped to launch Offaly Traveller Movement’s (OTM’s) Pre-Apprenticeship Programme. The event marked a significant step towards addressing educational inequality and promoting social inclusion for the Traveller Community.
Speaking at the launch, Sandra McDonagh, managing director of OTM said: “The significance of this programme cannot be overstated. Over half of Irish Travellers leave school by age 15 and less than 1 per cent advance to higher education. This stark educational inequality has far-reaching consequences, contributing to an unemployment rate of 80.2 per cent within the Traveller community.
“It’s important for learners to remember that along with CAO options, there are different pathways to getting the qualification they want and different ways of getting to the job they want,” says Rodgers. “This can make young people feel empowered and take away a lot of stress from them and their parents, particularly when the exams or the results don’t go their way. Because of this, we encourage all students to look at their FET pathways, which would be their plc courses, their apprenticeships and their earn and learn opportunities.”
For students and parents who might have career questions after the Leaving Cert results come out, Rodgers recommends they contact their local education and training board (ETB) centre and ask to speak with a guidance counsellor, or indeed any of the staff that are there. “They will be very helpful,” she adds.
“So too will the local college of further education, if there is one in the area. If there is not, then there will be a FET or adult training centre. Alternatively, there is a lot of information online. There, fetchcourses.ie is one of the best websites, with a huge amount of information. Another is ETBI.ie — the education and training boards Ireland website.”
Of the parents who insist their child go to college, irrespective of the youngster’s preference for a non/CEO route, she says: “These parents often say: ‘I really want my child to go to college. I know they’re well able for it.’” This, she says, is something that might stop them supporting their child’s decision to secure an apprenticeship.
“I have seen this happen,” she says. “Even when their young people would really have excelled in going that route.”
Elucidating, Rodgers explains: “It comes back to what parents think is best for their son or daughter. Their belief that the CAO route is best. Because in the past, college was believed to be the best way to go, and the apprenticeship option was rarely considered.”
Sagely, she is adamant that guidance counsellors endeavouring to convince parents one way or the other, is not the way to go. “Parents have to decide for themselves whether to support their child’s choice,” she says. “We know they act out of love and that they want their children to do really well.
“What we guidance counsellors do is give them the information, tell them the positive stories of people who have achieved success going the different pathways route, and remind them that whether their child goes to college or studies in a different way, the most important thing is that they are happy and healthy.
“The wellbeing of the young person is paramount. There is no point in locking students away for all of 6th year, so they study, study, study, while feeling under immense pressure to get whatever number of points. For lots of reasons, but particularly because we know, that really, there are lots of different ways to get there in the end.”
