More investment in apprenticeship programme

The number of young persons under 26 years of age that are in receipt of jobseeker’s allowance, jobseeker’s benefit or signing for credits for 12 months or more in County Tipperary is 417, according to new figures from Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
 

In response to this we need the development of, and investment in, an ‘access apprenticeships programme’ to support young people with fewer opportunities and qualifications. That was the message from James Doorley, National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI) Deputy Director, speaking at the publication of the organisation’s pre-budget submission recently.
 

 In its Pre Budget 2019 submission ‘Future Proof with Investment in Youth’ the NYCI, which represents youth organisations working with over 380,000 young people nationwide, is calling for an investment of €22 million in the education, training and access to apprenticeships to halve long-term youth unemployment by the end of 2019.
 

“Among these measures, we are proposing that €2m is invested in an access to apprenticeship programme. We welcome the growth in apprenticeships in the last number of years. The number of apprentices in training in 2017 was 12,849, up from 10,445 in 2016 driven by a 53% increase in the number of new entrants between 2015 and 2017. And we support the overall Government commitment to double the number of new entrants by 2020 to 9,000 per annum with the introduction of a range of new apprenticeships including in areas such as animation, horticulture and healthcare,” continued Mr Doorley.