27 April 2009
The way forward for apprenticeships in Northern
Ireland
Summary
The Northern Ireland Committee for Employment and Learning is
currently running an inquiry into how the current system of
apprenticeships might evolve to be more robust in the face of an
economic downturn and be more responsive to the fast-changing
requirements for particular skills and skills pools in the global
economy. The objective of the Investigation is to collate and
consider the opinions and views of the providers, recipients and
the utilisers of apprenticeships, and to seek useful regional and
international examples of good practice in apprenticeships, with a
view to producing a report of recommendations to the Minister for
Employment and Learning.
Semta View
Following a submission of evidence in December 2008 Semta/ETCNI
were invited to appear before the Committee at the end of January.
In this evidence session, Bill Brown and David Hatton were able to
describe the particular issues being faced by engineering companies
in sustaining their apprenticeship commitment during the downturn.
The value of adult apprenticeships to the sector, the role of
companies willing to ‘foster’ apprentices made redundant in the
middle of their training, and the effect of apprenticeships in
upskilling people into related occupations were all highlighted.
See our page on the inquiry here.
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