Guidance counsellors can help broaden entry

Speaking for IBEC, assistant social policy director Padraig O'Grady says that guidance counsellors in second-level schools have a particularly important role in helping to broaden entry into both apprenticeships and traineeships "as a valid way of entering the modern workplace."

The continuing tradition of skilled workers coming largely from craftworking backgrounds keeps entry narrow, he says. Some 56 per cent of apprentices say they had a family member who was a craftworker.

On the issue of employer preference for Leaving Cert holders over disadvantaged groups such as women, early school-leavers and the longterm unemployed, O'Grady says that Ireland is "quickly moving towards the Leaving Cert becoming a minimum platform for entry to the workplace."

However, he believes, now that Ireland is moving towards full employment, such people would "more and more be taken on," although "the resources will have to be made available for upskilling them to Leaving Cert level of literacy, numeracy and IT skills."

ICTU assistant general secretary Tom Wall says that one recommendation which the unions will not support would be to pay apprentices when they complete phases of training, rather than according to the time they spend in training and work, as at present. At a time when there are far more apprentices than FAS places for them - a backlog of up to 2,000 are waiting to go on courses at times - it would be unacceptable to pay them rates related only to the coursework done, especially when they would normally be paid at the yearly rate by their employers.

Wall sees "a real problem of overall certification in traineeships." All people are getting now are unrecognised "ad hoc" FAS certificates or "low level" City and Guilds certificates for short-term training courses. This will have to be dealt with by the new national qualifications authority. He is concerned at the narrow skills provided by some traineeships, which are largely determined by the needs of particular companies. Unlike apprenticeships, they do not provide "value added skills" which can be transferable to other firms, other sectors and even other EU countries. He would like to see traineeships broadened out in non-apprenticeship areas like hairdressing, to become "potential embryo apprenticeships."

He also echoes the report's questioning of the practice of providing EU and Statefunded traineeships for individual companies, when those companies are quite capable of paying for such training themselves.