6 Nov 2022

Apprenticeships and Traineeship Courses now Available on CAO

Minister Harris announces further changes for school leavers on the CAO portal which opened for applications on 4 November 2022 for 2023/2024

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has confirmed school leavers will now be able to access information on traineeships from the Central Applications Office portal. Since last year, students who log onto www.cao.ie/options can view all of their options including apprenticeships and further education and training.

This year, the range of options will be expanded to include traineeships. Traineeships are schemes that combine classroom education and hands-on work experience, and are run by Education and Training Boards (ETBs) in conjunction with industry representative bodies and employers.

Speaking today, Minister Harris said:

"Today, the CAO will open for applications. As students begin to consider their options post-school, it is important they are aware of all of the options available to them.

"Third level education is not confined to the walls of a university. Apprenticeships are third level. Post leaving cert courses are third level. Traineeships are third level.

"It is vital young people do not see one particular path as success. Success comes in different shapes and sizes.

"I want to thank the CAO, SOLAS and ETBI for continuing to work together to ensure our school leavers know all of the paths they can take to get to where they need to get to in life."

Through www.cao.ie/options, 750 further education and training courses will be available with the offering expanding in range and type. From today, there are more than 75 traineeship programmes available on the portal.

Many CAO applicants may not be aware that new courses are being developed by Higher Education Institutions all the time. The ever-changing nature of Technology, the Economy and Labour Market trends, means that HEIs constantly review their course listings to reflect where the demands are. Most new courses are designed in collaboration with industry because a need or a particular skills shortage has been identified in an area. Therefore, this will also mean that employment prospects will generally be excellent after graduating from these new courses.

Many of these new courses can be added into the CAO system late and may not be visible in College Prospectuses or the CAO Handbook. However, by using the ‘New for 2023’ filter on the CourseFinder you can keep right up to date with these new offerings. So far this year there have been over 70 new courses added to the list for entry in 2023, across all of the SEVEN main Career Sector categories below-

Agriculture, Animals & Food

7 new courses added to this Career Sector category so far in areas such as Sustainability in Agriculture/ Organic Agriculture, Food Science & Nutrition and Agricultural Systems Engineering.