Publication
Public Service Apprenticeship Plan
From Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
Published on
Last updated on
The ambition of this Public Service Apprenticeship Plan is for the civil and public service1 to reach 750 apprentice registrations per year by 2025. There has been a tradition of apprenticeship in the public service. However service delivery models have moved to increasingly outsourced services and usage has decreased. Despite this, 2022 saw a total of 373 apprentices registered with public service employers such as the civil service, the Defence Forces and local authorities. This was an increase of 46% on 2021 registrations. The apprentices were on over 20 different programmes in areas as diverse as cybersecurity, accounting technician, recruitment, heavy vehicle mechanics and stonecutting and stonemasonry. We need to build on this foundation through the path set out in this Plan.
This Public Service Apprenticeship Plan is a key deliverable under the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025. That Action Plan seeks to deliver annual registrations of 10,000 by 2025 through an apprenticeship system that is flexible and responsive, providing a strong value proposition and delivering high standards and sought after qualifications.
Apprenticeship is a structured education and training model that formally combines learning in the work place with learning in an education or training facility. Such programmes offer a route to qualifications and careers for school leavers, career changers, and jobseekers. Completing an apprenticeship prepares a person for a specific occupation, and leads to a qualification recognised under the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) at any level from Level 5 to Level 10. Programmes are full-time, involve on and off the job training and are of between 2-4 years in duration.
Cedefop2 (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) notes that in “most countries and the EU-27 on average, graduates who had some work-based learning in the form of an apprenticeship or of traineeship experiences, have higher employment rates than graduates with no work experience during their studies. A strong employment premium can be observed particularly for graduates with an apprenticeship experience” (2021: 135).
In addition to the Action Plan for Apprenticeship, the policies set out in the table below help to shape the development of this Plan.
| Policy Reference to apprenticeship 2020: Programme for Government ‘Our Shared Future’ | The public service is to demonstrate leadership in the growth of apprenticeship. It states a commitment to “taking the lead on boosting the availability and uptake of apprenticeships, by providing government apprenticeship schemes”. | |
| 2021: Building Momentum: Civil Service Action Plan’ | Pledges the civil service to continuing with the commitment that “apprenticeship and traineeship numbers will expand incrementally, on a sectoral basis” in line with PfG commitments and alongside established primary recruitment processes. | |
| 2023: ‘Better Public Services - Public Service Transformation 2030 Strategy’ | The public service is to collaboratively build a workforce and organisation of the future by upskilling and reskilling staff, establishing itself as an employer of choice by attracting, retaining, upskilling, and developing its staff, commencing with the development of a public service apprenticeship model. |
More broadly, the Public Service Apprenticeship Plan provides an additional supportive framework to a wide variety of policies where skills and skills shortages are an important factor, such as Housing for All and the Official Languages (Amendment) Act 2021.
Global economies are undergoing green and digital transitions. Technical and transversal skills needs are evolving, with, in particular, new developments in digitisation, and automation, sustainability and green skills.
In line with this, the world of work is changing at an increasing pace. All employers must ensure that they are best place to access and retain the skills they need across their workforce, through attractive career pathways.
