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A chronic shortage of apprentices is driving a surge in costs and delaying vital building projects.

That is the view of training centre manager Dave Tracey, who has stressed there are huge rewards for students and has urged teachers and parents to do a re-think.

An alarming survey revealed only 30 people registered for apprenticeships in 2017 as plasterers compared to 300 who signed up as trainees 13 years ago.

Meanwhile, 45 people signed up as apprentice painters which was a 72% drop since 2006 and bricklayers slumped from 679 to 65.

Mr Tracey, a carpentry and joinery training manager at Sisk, said after the demise of the Celtic Tiger “employers stopped taking on apprentices, obviously there was no work so there was no future”.

He added: “An apprenticeship is a four-year programme and it’s a four-year commitment from an employer to be fair.

“So when things started picking up again in the last two-to-three years there has definitely been a massive skills shortage.

“And this all goes back to secondary schools where career guidance teachers, principals and students even for that matter, there’s no drive on going into construction and apprentices in particular.

“Prices are going up and the challenge is because of the lack of skills there is a lack of quality.

“There’s a lack of delivery because there’s contractors that would like to take on more work but the supply chain is not there to deliver those jobs.”

Some of the key highlights of the Government’s Project Ireland 2040 transport plan announced last year include a metro rail link from Dublin Airport to the city centre and Swords at a cost of €3billion and three new hospitals in Dublin, Cork and Galway.

Mr Tracey, who started at Sisk himself as a apprentice carpenter in 1983, added: “A contractor could have a big contract and you have a certain amount of weeks to deliver a programme but the sub-contractors don’t have the men and they’re maxed-out.”

“So in our 2040 plan, will we be able to deliver that? There are challenges.

“We need more people coming into our industry, more craft people and we definitely need young people coming into our industry because they’re our next managers, our next leaders.”

(Image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Mr Tracey said most of the work is in Leinster and Dublin in particular so it’s costing more and is taking longer to travel. He told how the housing market is a big part of the problem and added: “Construction workers would love to live in Dublin but they can’t because the housing is too dear and there’s a lack of supply.

“That has an effect on our industry, there’s no doubt about it.”

The carpentry expert said the lack of job security has led to a huge decline in young people taking up apprentices in “wet trades” such as bricklaying, plastering, painting and tiling.

He added: “The reason being is it’s so easy to get on the phone and ring an agency and say I want 10 plasterers here.

“And the job is finished then in 10 weeks time and that’s it [and they can] make the call and say ‘I’m finished with them lads, take them back’.

“But that’s a short-term fix. Long term it’s not good for the industry and not only that it’s not good for the employee because they’re only getting 10 weeks work and then coming up to Christmas they could be laid off.

“So there’s no security and people are committed to mortgages and loans and other things.

“We need more people coming into our industry and we definitely need more young people because they’re our next managers, our next leaders.” An estimated 65,000 people left the construction industry during the recession but last year 1,000 new jobs were being created every month.

Mr Tracey said: “We have to educate our young people and we have to promote apprenticeships and our industry. We’re going to schools and career fairs, but our biggest plug now is to get at employers.

Sean Carter, 20, said a Sisk presentation at Holy Family Community School in Rathcoole, Dublin, convinced him to train as an apprentice carpenter and joiner with Sisk. His grandad was a skilled carpenter and tradesman and three of his uncles qualified as a carpenter, an electrician and a plumber respectively.

The third year apprentice added: “The first time I thought about doing it was when Sisk came into the school and did a presentation about the whole apprenticeship and what it entailed and all of the details.

“And that’s when my woodwork teacher Charlie Hill took me and five other lads aside and said, ‘Why not put in a CV and try’.

“We were the ones that were always listening, always interested, always trying to do a bit more.

“The career guidance beforehand, before Sisk came in, there was no real pointers towards apprenticeships

at all.

“It was kind of all CAO, college courses.”

Sally Jean Doherty, 26, completed a fitness course and worked in that industry for three years before she started her carpentry apprenticeship at Sisk last October. She said: “A few of my friends did the college side and the other half [three men] did apprenticeships.

Sally, who began training as an apprentice carpenter and joiner three months ago, added: “I’m the only girl [in my programme] at the moment.

“Women are normally moved towards CAO courses and going to college and following that route.

“If you’re pulled aside in school and told you’d be good for an apprenticeship you’re usually a guy.

“Hopefully that’s going to change now in the next few years because I feel like it doesn’t matter what gender you are.

“If you’re hardworking and you enjoy something you should be able to do it.”