One of my constituents is an apprentice heavy vehicle mechanic. When he signed up for the course, it was advertised as a four-year apprenticeship. While it was a big commitment, it was an investment in himself that he wanted to make. It is, however, a commitment that he would likely not have made had he known how his training would pan out. In January 2025, he should have started the off-the-job training aspect of his course, but he was told that he would have to wait for an indefinite period of time because SOLAS did not have the capacity to deliver it. Months passed in this vein. He contacted me in the hope that some way to end this wait could be found in order that he could continue his course. All he wanted was to roll up his sleeves and start work, but he was left out in the cold waiting to hear whether he could continue his course. More than one year has passed since, and he is still waiting. This month, SOLAS contacted him to inform him that he will be waiting until January 2027 at the earliest. That is a full two years after he should have started this training. I spoke to him today and he told me is considering dropping out of the course. He is considering looking at something else. This is not the first time he has said this to me. It is a continuous thought. He feels he cannot continue to wait and is utterly disappointed. This young man has been failed by the State. His ambition has been crushed by a broken skills and training system that is not working for apprentices. He is not alone in this regard. In a response to a parliamentary question I received in December, the Minister confirmed that over 1,7000 apprentices were waiting in limbo for off-the-job training. Meanwhile, there are chronic shortages of tradespeople across our economy. The Department’s forecast shows that we need 80,000 construction workers to deliver its plans for 300,000 new homes, plus the retrofitting of over 400,000 homes. Yet, apprentices of all types are waiting to progress but they cannot do so. These people want to be qualified. They want to help their communities and sort out the housing crisis but the Government is letting them fall through the cracks and asking them to put their lives on hold. The Government is simply not delivering for them. If a law degree – I have said this before in this Chamber - took six instead of four years, there would be outcry across the Chamber. Think about this young man and his two friends who are considering dropping out of their apprenticeship programme because they simply cannot wait any longer. I have followed this matter up with SOLAS and I have raised it in this Chamber, but to no avail. We need a fundamental shift in how we deliver apprenticeships. Instead of putting up barriers to entry, letting courses spiral in length and charging apprenticeship fees, the Government should be doing everything in its power to encourage young people into these jobs and boost the number of workers in trade and construction. It should increase the funding for the training bodies, provide targeted financial supports to SMEs during off-the-training blocks and abolish apprenticeship fees once and for all. We need to take these things seriously. We need to allow young people to have a future.

Sentiment score: 0.01