A Monaghan school guidance counsellor says if we want school-leavers to take up one of the many apprenticeships on offer, it "will require some education of parents". Gerry Reilly is a careers guidance counsellor at St Macartan's College, Monaghan and also the national secretary of Guidance Counsellors Ireland.
He discussed the many apprenticeship options available to young people today on the Joe Finnegan Show. Mr Reilly said he and his colleagues in schools across the country discuss the "equal pathways" available to students today with parents. He said it is not a case of "apprenticeship versus degree" and reminded people that an apprentice chef, for example, enters the programme at level 6. Level 7 is the equivalent of a degree and a chef can study to level 9 which is the same as attaining a masters degree. Mr Reilly said "That kind of information needs to get out there.
"With an engineering apprenticeship, for example," he said, "the student can gain a level 6 or even level 7 qualification which is equivalent to a degree from a university or institute of technology. One of the things people who are training in engineering through the apprenticeship route and one of the things companies they work for say is that they are 18 months ahead of the students who come out with a degree in engineering; they're 18 months ahead in on-the-job-knowledge," Mr Reilly said.
