An EU evaluation report says FAS apprenticeship and traineeship programmes are geared too much towards well-educated young people and not enough towards the disadvantaged and the long-term unemployed.
In its assessment, the European Social Fund found the two EU-supported programmes received high satisfaction ratings among both employers and participants.
The apprenticeship programme consists of alternating periods of on- and off-the-job training for 26 trades over four years; the traineeship programme is more flexible and shorter-term, and also involves alternating in-centre and work-based training periods.
The ESF report says the numbers in apprentice training nearly doubled in 1997, from just over 6,500 to nearly 11,400. However, family connections continue to be important, with over half the apprentices surveyed saying they came from families in which there were already qualified craftworkers.
The report says "participation by women, people with disabilities, early school-leavers and mature entrants" is "startlingly disproportionate" to total apprentice numbers.
The evaluation is critical of the present four-year duration of the apprentice system, which conflicts with FAS's objective of developing flexible, industry-relevant training, and could deter other trades from seeking inclusion.
Because employers too often demand Leaving Cert for entry to traineeship schemes, FAS finds it difficult to recruit suitable candidates, the report says. It recommends employers "lower their expectations" to allow the educationally disadvantaged and the long-term unemployed to participate. It found that less than half the employers surveyed were prepared to take the long-term unemployed or people over 40 on traineeships.
It concludes that traineeships are directed at well-educated school-leavers who, in the economy now should be able to get jobs unaided.