Secondary school students invited to showcase creativity and green values in Generation Apprenticeship Schools and Centres Competition 2025 now open
The National Apprenticeship Office has officially announced its call for entries for its exciting youth-led Generation Apprenticeship Schools and Centres Competition 2025, today, Wednesday, 19 February 2025.
Now in its 4th year of running, Ireland’s flagship Generation Apprenticeship schools and centres competition helps to promote green values and share sustainable values of Apprenticeships and highlight its 77+ diverse apprenticeship career programme offering to secondary school students and career seekers everywhere.
For the competition, individual students or teams of students are challenged to create or design a physical or virtual ‘A’ letter, representative of Apprenticeships, and showcase their creativity, skills and innovation, to reflect opportunities created by apprenticeships for positive climate action in the twenty-first century.
This year, the National Apprenticeship Office also invites entries from students and schools who want to produce a short apprenticeship podcast with a focus on green and sustainable values, with the opportunity to win a cash prize worth €500 for the top entries.
Competition winners will also gain an exciting opportunity to be featured in a national Generation Apprenticeship outdoor advertising campaign promoting green skills and 77+ diverse apprenticeship opportunities now available.
The National Apprenticeship Office is seeking entries from schools and centres right across Ireland, with the closing date of competition entries due Wednesday, 09 April 2025.
The competition also aims to remind people across Ireland how our everyday choices can both positively and negatively affect our environment, climate and communities and to reiterate how our individual actions matter if we want to ensure a sustainable future for all,
Previous competition winners include students from Colaiste Eoin, Dublin for their ‘Green Alert’ series of ‘A’ constructions demonstrating how apprenticeships are linked to green energy, with apprentices the backbone of the Ireland’s response to positive climate action.
Other excellent and inspiring runner up prize winning entries included O’Fiach College Dundalk student, Sophia Maguire’s constructed ‘A’ build using materials from landfill to show how apprenticeships can ‘Break the Glass ceiling’ and build gender parity and opportunities for women in construction, while Michelle Smyth of Navan Youthreach won a special prize for her virtual ‘A’ design that showcased apprenticeship career paths outside of the CAO.
Dr Mary-Liz Trant, Director of the National Apprenticeship Office, said:
“The National Apprenticeship Office is delighted to launch its Generation Apprenticeship Schools and Centres Competition for 2025. Never has there been a more pertinent time than now to focus on the importance of promoting green values, positive climate action and sustainability, with apprenticeships offering a key career pathway for young people to follow towards building a green and sustainable future for Ireland. Nobody is more engaged with climate action issues than Ireland’s young students, secondary school students in every county to enter the competition and win a fantastic prize for their creative efforts.
“We encourage students and schools to learn more about apprenticeships that drive a greener future, including Horticulture, Farming, Wind Turbine Maintenance Technician apprenticeships and much more, and to demonstrate their creativity, green values and passion to build a safe and sustainable future for Ireland.”
The Generation Apprenticeship Schools and Centres competition is open until Wednesday, 09 April 2025. Entries can be made via completing the competition entry form now available here at apprenticeship.ie.
Further information on the video can also be found in this short informational video here and at https://apprenticeship.ie. .
About the National Apprenticeship Office
The National Apprenticeship Office oversees the national apprenticeship system on behalf of Government. The Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 includes a goal of at least 10,000 apprentices registering each year by 2025. Delivered by the National Apprenticeship Office, the nationwide #GenerationApprenticeship campaign seeks to mobilise a community of more than 40,000 active apprentices, graduates, employers and apprenticeship training and support staff.
About the #GenerationApprenticeship campaign
Strategic promotion of the national apprenticeship system is coordinated under the banner of ‘Generation Apprenticeship’ by the National Apprenticeship Office. The pace of change is accelerating with apprenticeship, a choice that gives people the opportunity to earn while learning and develop 21st century work-ready skills. Find out more at www.apprenticeship.ie.
About Apprenticeships
- There are now over 29,000 apprentices training in Ireland across 77 diverse Generation Apprenticeship programmes, with 9,500+ employers driving opportunity with apprenticeship.
- Apprenticeship pathways now offer qualifications from a NFQ level 5 certificate level to Level 10 Phd across 77 programmes including a whole host of new apprenticeships with exciting employers coming on stream all of the time.
- Generation Apprenticeship programmes have broadened from craft and construction-led apprenticeships into diverse, cutting-edge industries such as ICT, biopharma, insurance, recruitment, real estate, sales and many more industries.
- Most recently, a number of apprenticeships have been launched including Digital Marketing, Social Work, and in Farm Management, Horticulture and Civil Engineering.
