Director of Academic Affairs, Dr Jim Murray stated:
“The technological higher education sector has been a strong supporter of apprenticeship provision since its inception, providing the ‘off the job’ learning element in many apprenticeship programmes. The great advantage of apprenticeship provision is that it not only provides the opportunity to the apprentice to learn on the job, but also to participate fully as an employee in a real-world work environment. The THEA member institutions have been key supporters of the new apprenticeships also, which extend this approach more broadly into sectors that have not traditionally been associated with apprenticeships. It is a fresh, ambitious and innovative undertaking, which THEA believes has the potential to bring about very significant enhancements to the apprenticeship system as a whole, and to those employment sectors that identify and choose it as the optimal model for educating and training their staff in particular occupations. We welcome the support of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to expand and promote apprenticeship provision in this new Action Plan and look forward to working collaboratively with all stakeholders to expand significantly the provision of apprenticeship programmes across the State.
“Our member institutions are particularly welcoming of the opportunity to engage collaboratively with partner stakeholders in delivering the very significant changes to the apprenticeship system during the lifetime of the plan and welcome particularly:
- the move to a single governance model across the pre- and post-2016 apprenticeships
which will allow for shared ownership of the system across Further Education & Training and HE; and- the planned migration of craft apprenticeships to the consortia-led model of delivery, which, together
with the new governance approach, will establish greater coherence in the quality assurance,
operation and development of apprenticeship programmes.“We look forward to working with the Department and with all stakeholder organisations in the further implementation of this Action Plan.”
For more information, please contact:
Róisín O'Connell, Head of Communications, THEA: (087) 9193333; roisin.oconnell@thea.ie
