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Mr Lown is set to tell the Oireachtas Further Education committee that while his own “supportive” company aids him by paying for the necessary tools in advance and allowing him to reimburse them in arrears, this “is not the case for all my fellow apprentices who have to pay for the cost of the tools upfront, which leaves many people financially deprived as they start vocational education”. In a session focused on the positives and negatives of the apprenticeship sector, Mr Lown is to call for strengthened supports for the purchase of course essentials via the creation of “a grant or fund that could be used for tools would go a long way for apprenticeships to start out”. In terms of Ireland’s roughly 30,000 apprentices, he is to say that attending the educational phase of their course represents “quite a challenge” for many who may be expected to travel “the length of the country” from their placement. He will stress that “the support that is currently available isn’t fit for execution”. “The lodging support that we get is €70 per week, that’s for the accommodation in the location we have been moved to. Not to mention the accommodation I would have to pay for at home, if I wasn’t living with my family,” he is expected to say, while noting “the shortage of accommodation that is available for students across the country already”. He is to state that should an apprentice not be able to access the lodging support, then “the only other financial support available is that of the fuel allowance which is capped at €30 per week regardless of the cost that it may be to you”. A solution would be to both beef up support payments, while also giving trainees the option to select their own preferred location for the off-the-job training sections of their courses. There has been a steady growth in take-up for apprenticeships in Ireland in recent years, with a record 9,300 new apprentices registered in 77 different fields in 2024. However, Mr Lown is expected to argue that the raising of fees from their previous level of €666 per annum in recent years has represented a “difficult adjustment” for many. “If the fees are not paid, the results of the examinations are withheld. This is a huge financial burden for apprentices,” he is to say, while calling for fees to be abolished entirely for the second, fourth, and sixth phases of each apprenticeship. Regarding the age ranges for apprenticeship applications, and the demands made of apprentices with families, Mr Lown is to argue that “more consideration” should be given to the provision of “supporting systems for the different progression paths in life”. Some apprenticeship streams continue to suffer from backlogs in terms of students progressing to the college phases of their schemes, with both the mechanical and mechanical automotive maintenance fitting streams amongst the worst affected, he is expected to say. The Department of Further Education had previously said a wait time of between three and six months for a phase 2 off-the-job training programme at an education and training board centre would be considered “normal”.
