Review of Pathways to Participation in Apprenticeship

The 2016-2020 Action Plan for Apprenticeship and Traineeship included a commitment to review pathways to participation in apprenticeship in Ireland. The first review was carried out during Q1-Q2 2018. A report of the findings is available on the Solas.ie website and presents the findings from the review and recommended steps to support and promote maximum diversity in the Irish apprentice population as it grows to 2020 and beyond.

The report highlights some general statistics about apprenticeships in Ireland in 2018. Some of these include;

• 85% of participants are men under 25 years of age
• Over 5,500 employers participate in the scheme
• Only 2% of women participate in apprenticeships
• Total number of apprentices is 14,943
• 2.8% of apprentices are people with disabilities

Five areas for action recommended in the report were as follows;

1. Increase participation in apprenticeship by diverse groups
2. Launch an online apprenticeship ‘jobs market’ to increase visibility of opportunities for all potential apprentices
3. Create new pathways via pre- apprenticeship courses around the country
4. Promote the bursary incentive with employers
5. Promote diverse pathways to participation in apprenticeship in the 2018-2020 Generation Apprenticeship campaign

The report identified the fact that gender participation was largely male with no female participants present in fourteen of the forty two programmes available. Some of the newer apprenticeships do seem to encourage more gender parity however with the new finance apprenticeships for example comprising 44.5% female participation. Some other findings highlighted were related to socio-economic circumstances of participants and support for participants with disabilities. The report in full can be viewed below..