Ciaran King, General Manager with King and Moffat Building Services is calling for far more support for young people who want be apprentices, and more incentives for small and medium businesses to take them on and help them develop their trade.
Ciaran sits on the Education and Training Committee of the Construction Industry Federation and says while things are improving in how apprenticeships are being marketed and supported, there is still a lot that needs to be done.
King and Moffat currently employ around 300 people across Ireland and the UK with up to 60 apprentices.
Ciaran King says there are up to 17,500 apprentices currently being trained in this country and while some trades are well represented, there are just 4 people nationwide training as Painters and Decorators, 2 in Plastering, and no one is doing an apprenticeship in Floor and Wall tiling.
He spoke to Joe Finnegan today abut how King and Moffat have developed their apprentice programme and his ideas of what the government needs to do to ensure that we get more people involved in the trades.
