Apprentices, not masters

Sir — I must say I agree with Jody Corcoran’s piece in last Sunday’s paper, headlined ‘The revolution needs more carpenters and fewer master’s’.

I am a time-served carpenter who did my apprenticeship between 1976 and 1980. How times have changed. In my time as many as 10 from my class of 30 would have opted for the apprenticeship system with employers. Anco was the training authority at the time and one day every week was spent in school for the theory side and practical exams.

This later changed under FÁS with a new standardsbased system with blockrelease courses in training centres. All of my own apprentices were trained under this system.

Today’s students are not interested in any of the traditional trades, which are as relevant and as necessary as ever before. Technology has taken over the minds of the younger generation. Parents don’t encourage the taking up of apprenticeships. Neither do their teachers or the career guidance counsellors.

A year or more ago, I sat in my local pub and watched as 15 members of our local GAA club celebrated a win. There was not one building worker among them.

But at the end of the day each of them will need a place to live. Someone will have to lay the blocks, cut the roof, hang the doors. As a country we are going nowhere otherwise and this is becoming more evident on a daily basis.

It is time someone shouted stop to this madness and diverted funding away from the runaway third-level sector and into basic training under the apprenticeship system of old before it is too late. Perhaps it already is!

As I come close to retirement, it saddens me to see the age profile of workers on Irish construction sites today. The country is in danger of losing a skill set that was built up over generations.