Why apprenticeships matter for the future

JUST because the CAO makes it easy to put a tick beside up to 20 different higher education courses, doesn’t mean that it is the only, or best, route to selecting a career pathway.

It has a familiarity and

– love it or hate it – with 1,400 courses listed and its streamlined approach, it has become the go-to for schoolleavers and others seeking a qualification.

It is true that for many years, particularly during the financial crisis, there weren’t many other places to look outside the confines of the CAO. That has changed and choices opening up now deserve the same attention from students — and parents (research has shown that mothers are the biggest influences on career choices) — as the CAO.

Apprenticeship opportunities are multiplying, but new offerings suffer from a lack of familiarity and, it has to be said, the application process is not as straightforward, yet, as the CAO. But there is every reason to explore what is available: there are 45 different types of apprenticeships, including 18 new ones – and more on the way.

Traditionally, apprenticeships were concentrated in construction, electrical and motor trades, but they have expanded into areas of industry and business that include medical devices, manufacturing engineering, biopharmaceuticals, logistics (freight and warehousing), auctioneering, technology, cheffing, butchery and financial services.

Students have different learning styles and, while the pure academic route suits some, others, including many students with high CAO points, prefer a blend of work and study as their track to a valuable qualification.

In fact, the value of applying new-found knowledge and skills as they go, is recognised in the increasing importance attached to work placements for students on CAO courses.

A recent Higher Education Authority (HEA) report again highlighted the level of dropout from college courses, most of which occurs in the first year. It begs a question about how many of those students would have been better suited to a different path.

Whether, via the CAO, a post-Leaving Certificate courses (PLCs) or an apprenticeship, qualifications share a common currency. Apprenticeships are mapped on the same National Qualifications Framework (NFQ) as conventional higher education and further education courses.

The NFQ has 10 levels of qualification and offers great transparency for someone trying to work out where they fit into the overall scheme of things. PLCs are Level 5 or Level 6, while higher certificates/ordinary degrees are pitched at Level 6/7, an honours degree is Level 8, a masters is Level 9, and the top rung, a doctorate, is Level 10.

Depending on the apprenticeship, they are placed on different rungs of the NFQ. Each is linked either to a college of further education, under the umbrella education and training boards (ETBs) or a higher education institution.

For instance, construction trades tend to be at Level

6, as is the Auctioneering and Property Services apprenticeship currently available in both Dublin and Cork.

A Level 7 Laboratory Analyst and a Level 6 Laboratory Technician, are offered in association with Technological University Dublin (Tallaght) while the Insurance Practitioner programme, the study element of which is run online from IT Sligo, leads to a Level 8 degree.

A key difference between apprenticeships and the CAO or a PLC is that the starting point is getting a position with an employer, committed to the programme.

That could be a building contractor, a restaurant, a manufacturing engineering company, a butcher, a technology or pharmaceutical company or in one of the many other sectors that have signed up for apprenticeships.

A big attraction is that apprentices are paid. Many come with starting rates of c€20,000 a year and while, in some cases, apprentices will be required to pay a contribution towards the study element, it would be nowhere near the €3,000-a-year college fees.

Because they are dispersed in companies around the country, apprentices are less visible than conventional students, but there are plenty of them, with more than 15,000 currently at some stage in their training.

The figure includes about 5,000 students who started in the past year, equivalent to the first year intake at Ireland’s largest university, UCD.

The apprenticeship.ie website is a good place to start the research.