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More than 90% of apprentices who qualified in 2020 were in employment two years later, and their median weekly earnings were €935.
The number of qualified apprentices who completed Engineering & Engineering Trades apprenticeships nearly doubled between 2016 and 2020, from 970 in 2016 to 1,875 in 2020.
The number of qualified apprentices in the field of Architecture & Construction more than doubled between 2016 and 2020, from 230 in 2016 to 490 in 2020.
The most common consortia-led apprenticeship was in Business & Administration, accounting for less than 7% (185) of all completed apprenticeships in 2020.
The share of qualified apprentices that were in Neither Employment nor Education or Not Captured dropped significantly over the 10-year period from approximately 40% in 2010 to 7% in 2020.
The top industry sectors for employing the apprentices who qualified in 2020, were Construction (870), Industry (575), and Wholesale & Retail Trade (270).
The highest median weekly earnings for apprentices two years after their qualification in 2020 were in the fields of Engineering & Engineering Trades (€975), Architecture & Construction (€870) and Manufacturing & Construction (€800).
In terms of apprenticeship type, those who qualified from a craft apprenticeship had median weekly earnings of €950, compared with €770 for those who completed a consortia-led apprenticeship.
Learn about our data and confidentiality safeguards, and the steps we take to produce statistics that can be trusted by all.
Statistician's Comment
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) has today (25 April 2025) published Apprenticeship Outcomes - Qualification Year 2020. This is the first release that focuses solely on the outcomes of apprenticeships, although the CSO did publish a chapter on Apprenticeship Outcomes in the Further Education Outcomes Graduation Years 2010-2016 release.
Apprenticeships provide training for new practitioners of a trade or profession. In Ireland such programmes fall under the governance of the National Apprenticeship Office (NAO), a body established in January 2022 by SOLAS in collaboration with the Higher Education Authority (HEA). The NAO maintains the national register of employers approved to work with apprentices and a national register of apprentices. All validated apprenticeship programmes lead to awards granted by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI).
Commenting on the release, Anais Colibaba, Statistician in the Statistical Systems Coordination Unit, said: “This release measures the employment and education outcomes for apprentices who qualified between 2010 and 2020. Areas examined in this release include employment, re-enrolment in education, the industry sectors that qualified apprentices work in, as well as their median weekly earnings.
It is worth noting there are two types of apprenticeships in Ireland: craft apprenticeships and consortia-led apprenticeships. Craft apprenticeships offer training in traditional craft trades such as plumbing or carpentry and typically last for four years. Consortia-led apprenticeships were created in 2016 by industry and education and training providers in response to industry needs. The consortia-led apprenticeship cover areas such as finance, Information & Communication Technology (ICT), hospitality, and industrial engineering. The duration of these types of apprenticeships varies between two and four years and the first completions were recorded in 2019.
Overall Results
The number of qualified apprentices fluctuated significantly between 2010 and 2020. In 2011, the number of qualified apprentices in Ireland was at its highest, amounting to a total of 3,820 people. This fell as low as 1,220 apprenticeship completions in 2016. By 2020, the number of qualified apprentices had risen to 2,685. Of these, 2,390 apprentices (90%) qualified in craft-type apprenticeships, with the remaining 295 (10%) successfully completing consortia-led apprenticeships.
Approximately 50% of the qualified apprentices in 2020 were aged 25 years and under and the vast majority of qualified apprentices (95.5%) were male.
Employment Outcomes
More than nine in ten (92%) of the apprentices who qualified in 2020 were in employment two years after qualification, a 40% increase compared with those who qualified in 2010. More than half of the qualified apprentices in 2020 were in employment in either the Construction or Industry sectors two years after qualification.
The proportion of qualified apprentices that were in Neither Employment nor Education or Not Captured (presumed emigrated) dropped significantly from 39.3% to 6.9% between 2010 and 2020.
Earnings
The median weekly earnings of apprentices who qualified in 2020 and were in employment two years later were €935. However, there were notable differences in the median weekly earnings across the various fields of Education and Training.
The top three detailed fields of Education and Training in terms of highest median weekly earnings for apprentices two years after qualification were Engineering & Engineering Trades (€975), Architecture & Construction (€870) and Manufacturing & Processing (€800). In terms of apprenticeship type, those who qualified from a craft apprenticeship had median weekly earnings of €950, compared with €770 for those who completed a consortia-led apprenticeship.
Education Outcomes
About 15% of the qualified apprentices in 2020 were enrolled in education two years after their apprenticeship completion, representing 410 qualified apprentices. Of those, more than half went into Higher Education only and some 40% pursued Further Education only.
Commenting further on how this release was developed, Rob Kelly, Senior Statistician, said: “This release was produced using a statistical framework known as the Educational Longitudinal Database (ELD) developed by the CSO. This framework is produced by matching datasets from the Education sector to other public sector datasets which describe learner outcomes in subsequent years. In this regard, the CSO treats all data with strict confidentiality and never discloses any data that could subsequently be associated with any person or business. We have compiled these new statistics using anonymised records and will only produce statistical results at an aggregate level. This means no individual can ever be identified from the data we utilise.”