Debate contribution: Apprenticeships

Debate contribution by Mr Jonathan Buckley on 5 March 2024.

MLA

Mr Jonathan Buckley

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

5 March 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Apprenticeships

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4252914

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the motion. It is a timely opportunity for the House to recognise and celebrate the key contribution that apprentices have played in the Northern Ireland economy. We can all relate to experiences where we have interacted with apprentices and seen the key contributions that they have made in a number of sectors. Looking back, we may think that they were very much in traditional crafts, training to be electricians, builders and joiners. However, that field has grown, and it continues to grow with exciting new opportunities. For my sins, my first interaction with the working world was as an apprentice. I risk embarrassing a Member, but he is not here. I went for an interview for an electrical apprenticeship at an agri-food company, and sitting across from me was the Member for Mid Ulster Keith Buchanan, who interviewed me that day. I was 17 years of age. I am pleased to say that he gave me the job. In the end, I did not take it up, but never did I think that we would cross paths again in the apprenticeship world of politics. That is a vital example of how interwoven apprenticeships already are in the Northern Ireland psyche. There is much more work to be done. We have to support apprenticeships. When we look at the significant issues facing the Northern Ireland economy, one thing that comes up time and time again — it has come up again in the debate — is the skills gap. The first thing a potential investor looks at is the skills that an economy has. We have significant gaps. There has been an inability of economies in the Western World to re-pivot their workforce towards the sectors that are growing. We have been too slow in acting, so I welcome the motion and the recognition that we must pivot to keep pace with the economy. On that point, I pay tribute to former Economy Ministers Gordon Lyons and Diane Dodds, who recognised the need for apprenticeships and put them at the heart of a skills strategy and the 10X Economy. Traditionally, apprentices have always been looked on as being junior members of staff, but now we see the untapped potential of apprenticeships not only in those junior years but throughout life to tackle the issue of economic inactivity. We have a ready workforce that could easily be applied to growth sectors, which would ensure that we can continue to develop the economy.

One issue has been mentioned by all parties, and it is really interesting to see that it is a point of unanimity for the Committee: we all recognise the huge emphasis that there must be on better careers provision to ensure that we can train and offer opportunities to the workforce of the future. In many cases, it has been lacklustre. We can all look at our personal examples and see that some of the career opportunities that were offered to young people were bad — in fact, some of them were terrible — in different times gone by. I tend to feel, however, that there must be much more cross-departmental working on that point. We need to take that point up with our Education colleagues as well, because, fundamentally, when we approach the topic of further and higher education, both are to be celebrated, as both bring great opportunity. If we look at the role of apprenticeships — they have the ability to pay good wages and allow people to earn while they learn — we see that they have a transformational impact. I believe that we are not selling that message at an early enough stage. I mentioned at Committee that, quite often, the conversations are had when children are picking their GCSEs or A levels. Opinions have often been formed by that stage, not in all cases but in some, and, therefore, our young people do not fully grasp the potential opportunities that exist.

I thank the Member for that vital point. There are huge opportunities in our public sector. We are going through a moment of great change in our economy. Let us look at this. Birth rates are at a historic low in the Western World. There will be a huge push towards AI technologies to meet the demands created by a workforce no longer being there and towards the automation of work lines in more public-facing services, such as manufacturing or agri-food. It will still, however, require the input of skilled young people and, indeed, people of all ages, who apply through the likes of apprenticeships and can man those machines. It is applicable to the public sector as well. I welcome the opportunity to celebrate apprenticeships and to target resource. We talked about the apprenticeship levy and how that resource is being taken away when it should be put into the Northern Ireland economy. Let us focus on what synergy there can be across Departments to ensure that we give apprentices the opportunities that they deserve and employers a workforce that is fit for purpose as our economy changes, albeit for the better.

852 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:50 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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