THERE are currently 634 young people on apprenticeship programmes in County Limerick, according to the National Youth Council of Ireland (NYCI).
This week NYCI called for increased investment to support more young people into an apprenticeship and a range of other employment and training measures to reduce long-term youth unemployment.
In its Pre Budget 2020 submission ‘A Fair Share for Young People and Youth Work’ the NYCI, which represents youth organisations working with over 380,000 young people nationwide, is calling for an overall investment of €14.9million in education, training and apprenticeships to halve long-term youth unemployment by the end of 2020.
“Census 2016 indicates that our population aged 10-24 years will increase to over one million by 2025, so we need to invest in policies, services and supports,” said NYCI deputy director, James Doorley.
“We welcome job growth in the Irish economy. However, we are concerned that almost 6,000 young people are long-term unemployed.
Among the measures proposed is an investment of €2.5m in an Access to Apprenticeship programme.
