Skip to main content

The Sunday Business Post (Ireland):
Siptu proposes apprenticeship system for young people

3 November 2013

The Department of Education is understood to have established the review group because it was concerned about a significant collapse in employer demand for apprentices, particularly in construction-related trades. Statistics reported by this newspaper in May showed a massive fall-off in the number of new apprentice registrations supplied by troubled state training agency F ¡s, which was replaced last week by Solas, a new further education and training authority. The review group, headed by Labour Court chairman Kevin Duffy, is consulting widely with training providers, trade unions and employer representatives. It is focusing on work-based learning and establishing a closer alignment of the apprenticeship system with the current needs of the labour market. The review group also includes Dr Hilary Steedman, a senior research fellow from the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, and Dr Tony Dundon, head of management discipline at the School of Business and Economics in NUI Galway. The group also contains representatives from industry, Ibec and Ictu.

The article was published in The Sunday Business Post on November 3, 2013
[Subscription needed to view the article]

Related links
Hilary Steedman webpage
Education and Skills Programme webpage
Hilary Steedman CEP publications webpage