The benefits of a career in the public service have been highlighted this week with the news that Mayo County Council and public service local providers around the county such as the HSE, are to commence providing apprenticeships in order for people to train in the various roles on offer as civil servants.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD, announced a plan this week to grow the number of annual apprenticeships across the public service to 750 over the next two years, including in local authorities, with at least five per year to come from each local authority and HSE organisation, as part of a new apprenticeship plan for the Public Service designed to increase the number of trainees within the public sector.
Jobseekers interested in a career in the civil service can choose from a range of apprenticeships such as in digital marketing and media; planning technician training; NFQ level 5 Healthcare Assistant training; Architectural Technician training; Civil Technician programme; Executive Officer training; Junior Investigator with the Garda Siochana Ombudsman Commission and paramedic training in the health service.
The move has been warmly welcomed by former career guidance teacher with Mayo VEC and former head of Castlebar College of Further Education, Tony Deffley, who is the Trade Union member on the Education SPC on Mayo County Council, who says it is not before time that such a programme was introduced.
He told the Mayo Advertiser: "When I was in career guidance I was always campaigning for the local authorities to take up, what I believe is their moral responsibility, to provide apprenticeships, so this step is long overdue. An apprenticeship leads you on to a trade, which gives you a qualification at level 6, and provides a person with a qualification for a lifetime - plus the fact they can progress from a level 6 upwards. It is a model of education that is about progression and articulation - which means you can go sideways, and diversify, into another relevant qualification."
He added: "This is good news for young people. Before it used to be all about carpenters and electricians, all superb trades, but now with this, it has diversified and we have new apprenticeships. There has also been a debate going on for a long time as to education paths, and I would suggest an apprenticeship is the best form of learning, at the knee of the master, and I think a lot of people will realise they learned an awful lot of what they know, not from books from the person with the skills providing the training; even surgeons learn in this way and I believe it is one of the best ways of learning and is in fact superior to formal academic learning."
Mayo County Council Director of Services for Human Resources, Catherine McConnell, said of the plan: "Whilst we are still awaiting details of the proposed new scheme to introduce a wider range of apprenticeships into the public sector, Mayo County Council welcomes the opportunities that such a scheme will provide. The benefits are two-fold: It assists the local authority in developing the critical skills needed in a modern local authority whilst also allowing those pursuing third level qualifications to gain valuable work experience at the same time.
"The opportunities to collaborate with ATU, MSLETB and other third level institutions is also exciting and supports the expansion of 3rd level educational opportunities in Mayo and the wider region.
"Over the past number of years, we have been experiencing challenges in the recruitment of technicians and other roles with specific skill sets and it is very welcome that this initiative recognizes and seeks to address these challenges through such an apprenticeship programme.
"It is also good to see a mix of apprenticeships being proposed- both vocational and those which rely on digital skills as well as more general administrative skills through the suggested Executive Officer stream."
