Debate contribution: Apprenticeships
Debate contribution by Mr Philip McGuigan on .
- MLA
- Mr Philip McGuigan
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 5 March 2024
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Apprenticeships
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4252891
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I welcome the motion and will support it and the amendment. Apprenticeships must be an integral part of any strategy to develop our skills base in the North. Young school-leavers in my constituency of North Antrim should have the option and opportunity of an education pathway to reach their full potential through an apprenticeship, in order to earn as they learn. I therefore welcome the Economy Minister's commitment to creating more and better-paid apprenticeships and skills academies, as outlined in his economic vision. I support and agree with the aspirations in the motion and the amendment. It is worth noting that those aspirations have been and will be made more difficult by the impact of the loss of substantial funding from the EU. The British Government's supposed replacement, the Shared Prosperity Fund, is not adequate and leaves the Executive with a significant gap to plug. Ultimately, we can speak about and support a ring-fenced skills fund, but, in reality, any funding lost as a result of Brexit needs to be restored so that we can extend provision and achieve the ambitious targets that all of us here would like to see. The motion mentions the 10X skills strategy, but it is important to point out the limitations of 10X, in that it is narrowly focused on just six sectors, the majority of which are digital sectors such as cybersecurity and financial services. Although those are no doubt important, a skills strategy needs to be consistent with the needs of all local employers, across all constituencies and sectors. As was pointed out, one of the best examples of apprenticeships working well is in the manufacturing sector in mid-Ulster, under the MEGA model. At the time of 10X, Sinn Féin made the case that some of the labour and skills shortages in areas such as tourism, construction and the health service could be resolved by investing in apprenticeships. Sinn Féin previously supported, for example, the provision of nursing higher-level apprenticeships. Recruitment to fill more than 1,700 registered nursing and midwifery vacancies is taking place in Health and Social Care (HSC). Nursing apprenticeships can offer an additional pathway for people to enter the nursing profession without having to take a more academic route and could help people who work in other roles in the health and social care sector to move into the nursing profession if they wish. Similarly, we need to be much more ambitious and elevate the importance of investing in green skills. Again, I am glad to see that green skills and a just transition are key feature of the Economy Minister's economic vision. About 5,000 people are employed in full-time green jobs here in the North, but we can expect that number to grow substantially as more jobs become available in areas such as renewable energy, manufacturing, retrofitting and conservation. The energy strategy sets out the potential for almost 14,000 jobs to emerge in the low-carbon workforce. Apprenticeships can and should be used to bridge the gap between the levels of qualifications needed for carbon-intensive industries, which are likely to close or change, and those needed for the renewables sector, where the workforce will definitely expand. In September 2023, the Department chose to fund all-age apprentices, meaning that anyone over the age of 25 can receive public funding for their apprenticeship. That is a welcome move. All-age apprenticeships will be a game changer for skills, meaning that workers of all ages can reskill and upskill without having to pay for their own apprenticeship training and can therefore find a path into a better job or enhance their career opportunities. In conclusion, apprenticeships and apprentices, whatever their age, must be treated with the same consideration and as being of the same importance as other third-level students. That career pathway must be embedded in the careers education and advice system. Increasing the uptake and expansion of apprenticeships will depend on reform of careers advice. For too long, academic pathways and routes to university have overshadowed the importance of apprenticeships and vocational pathways to success. That needs to change.
677 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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