The Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) welcomes the €17m investment in apprenticeship education announced by Minister Simon Harris today.
This additional capacity is required to meet the increase in apprentice registrations in a number of trades and in the new apprenticeships.
The funding will be dispersed across four technological universities and Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) to deliver in the order of an additional 132 apprenticeship craft training blocks. Also included in this investment is an allocation of €220,000 for SETU Carlow to procure all equipment required for delivery of Phase 2 and Phase 4 of their Aviation programme.
It is TUI’s strong position that this funding must be spent in enhancing and upgrading apprenticeship facilities across the sector.
Laboratories and classrooms need to be appropriately equipped and have the flexibility to facilitate several forms of apprenticeship, and institutes must be properly equipped so that they can facilitate the increasing number of apprenticeships open to students. This is needed to avoid blockages and backlogs which are clearly detrimental to the apprenticeship students and ultimately the economy.
The objectives of the TUI in the realm of apprenticeship education are both to safeguard the delivery of Phase 4 and Phase 6 provision in the technological university/institute of technology (TU/IoT) sector for the future and to ensure the maintenance of apprenticeship education as a public service and for the common good.
In general terms, the TU/IoT sector must be provided with continuous, appropriate investment to maintain high standards in Ireland.