Apprenticeships enjoying a surge in popularity
Hazel Johnston is employed as an apprentice automation engineer by the medical device company DePuy Synthes. She’s also studying manufacturing engineering at Munster Technological University in Bishopstown.
Is it a biscuit? Is it a bar? That was the question posed in a confectionery advert that ran on TV back in the day. It sprang to my mind when perusing Thomas McCarthy’s excellent 1977 report ‘Apprentices in Ireland, which was part of the Commission of European Communities’ Social Policy Series.
It’s an interesting read. In it, McCarthy alludes to the fact that in the 1970s, apprenticeships in Ireland were a topic of ‘considerable national debate’ of the ‘protracted and intense kind.’
Some of the catalysts for the vigorous discourse (my words not his) were ‘basic philosophical issues related to apprenticeship.’ One of the talking points was whether an apprentice is ‘primarily a student or an employee’. (Hence, the biscuit or bar reminiscence).
Happily these days, the student/employee question is no longer an issue. Now it’s a black and white apprentice/employee matter, in that once someone becomes apprenticed under one of the multitudinous national apprenticeship programmes in Ireland, they also become an employee. So they become both apprentices and employees.
It’s irrelevant for sure, but lest you were wondering, there is further parallel here between the vintage 'biscuit or bar' question. Because those who watched the advert in its entirety (it was a short advert) learned that the confectionery in question was in fact a biscuit in a bar.
Why this was deemed a good marketing selling point was questionable to my mind. I assumed the revelation could only serve to generate a drop in sales each year between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday, when they’d likely lose the custom of not only those who were giving up biscuits for Lent, but those giving up bars as well.
Much has changed since those days, particularly in regard to apprenticeships in Ireland and it’s all good. Employers today are happy that apprentices have employee status from the get-go. We know this because over 9,000 of them are actively employing apprentices in Ireland today. Apprenticeships help them to grow their businesses and to attract talent from a wide variety of backgrounds.
The apprentices are happy as well. Earning while learning is a gift. So is employee status. Both promote equality. Both help make career dreams happen. These truths are not lost on the 26,000 or so apprentices currently in training.
The apprenticeship community in Ireland has grown substantially, with NAO figures indicating that it comprises more than 40,000 individuals who are either active apprentices, graduates or employers, or training and support staff.
While the expansion of the apprenticeship programme in Ireland has happened very quickly, the number of female apprentices here has exploded. Eight years ago there were just over three dozen. Fast forward to now and that figure is somewhere north of 1,000, which by any standard is fine progress indeed.
Two of the ladies behind the statistics are Hazel Johnston (21) from Lanesbro, Longford and Leah Carroll Byrne (21) from Clonegal, Wexford.
Hazel is employed as an apprentice automation engineer by the medical device company DePuy Synthes. She’s also studying manufacturing engineering at Munster Technological University in Bishopstown.
When she finishes this year, she will have a Level 7 in Manufacturing Engineering. “They’re bringing in a Level 8 as well,” she enthuses. “So hopefully I will be doing that.”
She speaks with pride about her employer.
“They make hip knee and shoulder implants and they’re owned by Johnson & Johnson,” she says.
It’s clear that she has a great grá for automation engineering and really enjoys her work. “In DePuy, I’m part of a team that helps to automate processes,” she says. “I help to get lines, equipment and machinery automated.”
Asked if that’s as futuristic as it sounds, she replies in the affirmative: “Automation is a really new thing. I think it’s going to be really big in the future.”
Referring then to there being a ‘shortage of automation engineers,’ she adds: “That makes this apprenticeship even better, as in, even more beneficial for both my employer and myself.”
Hazel says her apprenticeship ‘happened’ for her because she herself applied for it.
“When I told my parents about it, they were quite shocked. Because I did well in my Leaving Cert. they would have rathered I went to college and took the traditional route. The way people view apprenticeships is that they are for people who don’t do well in the Leaving Cert. and that is completely wrong,” she says.
“Apprenticeships are very hard as is the college part. My parents didn’t have a positive view of apprenticeships. They didn't think it would bring me opportunities. But now that it has, my parents, like me, are great advocates for apprenticeships.
"So, I think that it’s really important to educate parents on apprenticeships. Because they are such a major factor in students deciding what they want to do after school. My parents wouldn't have been up for my doing an apprenticeship at all. It happened for me because I applied for it myself.”
Leah Carroll Byrne’s journey into apprenticeship began with her modelling part-time at hairdressing competitions for Vanilla Hair Design in Tullow, Carlow, while still at school. That led to a Saturday job at the salon.
“The minute I stepped into that industry, I was hooked,” she says. “I loved how a hairdresser could make somebody feel so beautiful and like a million dollars.”
On leaving school three years ago, Leah began working full-time as a hairdresser at Vanilla.
“At that time the national hairdressing apprenticeship didn’t exist. I heard about it because I was working with people from the Irish Hairdressing Association Board. So as soon as the apprenticeship was introduced, I became apprenticed and am now in my second year. So I’m working and studying at Enniscorthy Community College as well.
“With the apprenticeship, it’s 80% salon and 20% college and you have to be full-time employed. So there is protection for hairdressers that way, which is great.”
Like Hazel, Leah is thoroughly enjoying her apprenticeship.
“I’m so lucky. I fell on my feet, with the team around me at work and my boss who is a brilliant mentor. If you tell her what you want at the start of the year she will encourage and help you as best she can to get what you want for yourself.”
Of the need for all students to be made aware of apprenticeships, Leah says: “As amazing as it is to to college, there could be a handful of people sitting in a Careers class at school, not having a hope of getting into those colleges, or not having any interest in going to those sort of colleges. So I think they should be made aware that there are other ways forward and everyone should know about apprenticeships. What a lot of young people at schools are not getting is information about apprenticeships.”
There is no doubt whatsoever that apprenticeships can change lives for the better.
Keenly aware of the opportunities that have opened to her, Hazel says: “With this apprenticeship, I have the opportunity to stay in Ireland, go down a more technical route and become a subject matter expert. Or, I could go into people management.
“It has also given me the opportunity to work anywhere within Ireland, or anywhere in the world. It has opened so many doors for me, that I don’t know yet where I’m going to go with my life in the future.”
