Sinn Féin spokesperson on Further and Higher Education, Mairéad Farrell TD, has said the preliminary results of Connect Trade Union’s apprenticeship survey supports the findings of her own research which indicated a dropout rate of around 20% for craft apprentices.

Deputy Farrell welcomed the work undertaken by Connect Trade Union which surveyed over 600 apprentices in 21 trades. It found that many young people are dropping out of training due to years of delays and poor pay. The failure to reach our apprenticeship targets, and to around a fifth of those already in the system, is jeopardising our housing targets.

Teachta Farrell said:

“I have been raising this issue constantly with the government and, despite the usual responses that they are listening, the situation continues to get worse. Apprentices are dropping out at a higher rate than third level students. There’s no mystery here.

“If you were a medical student doing a four-year degree and then someone told you, “oh bad luck, there’s been delays in your placement so the degree will now take six or seven years’, there would be outrage. Yet this has been commonplace now for years when it comes to apprenticeships.

“The system is so clogged up that four-year trades are taking up to five, six and seven years to complete because apprentices aren’t being called to do their off the job training in a timely fashion.

“Coupled with the fact that apprentices start on sub-minimum rates of pay, and this pay is tied to the number of phases of the job training they have completed, this means they earn less for longer.

“Consider the fact that the average age of someone starting an apprenticeship now is older than in the past. Whereas once someone might have started one at the age of 16 having not finished school, now the average age is around 21.

“A 21-year-old could be starting on just under €8 an hour. Few people can live on that, so it is no wonder that one in five are deciding to drop out and pursue other careers. The government is cutting out the legs from under the construction sector workforce.

“I feel so sorry for the way apprentices have been treated in this state. So long as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are in government, apprentices won’t get a fair shake.”