ATU Donegal campus to offer apprenticeships for the first time in 2024

ATU Donegal campus in Killybegs will deliver apprenticeships for the first time with 18 blocks of Electrical apprenticeships with 288 places available.

ATU Letterkenny will deliver six blocks of Metal Fabrication apprenticeships with 96 place and three blocks of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning apprenticeships with 48 places.

The announcement also comes with a jobs boost as ATU will be recruiting lecturing staff and technicians to meet the requirements.

The decision comes following the announcement this week by Further and Higher Education Minister Simon Harris and Minister of State Niall Collins of €17 million in capital funding to respond to the growing demand for apprenticeships in the higher education sector.

The national funding will be dispersed across four Technological Universities and one Institute of Technology to upgrade and develop spaces to deliver an additional 132 apprenticeship craft blocks.

The additional capacity is required to meet the increase in apprentice registrations indicated by SOLAS in a number of trades.

ATU will receive €8.2 million from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) while the university itself (ATU) is investing matched funding of just over €1.7 million, bringing the total ATU/HEA investment in apprenticeship expansion and delivery to circa €10 million.

This will see the delivery of 51 additional apprenticeship blocks from 2024, amounting to 816 places of the total.

Welcoming the funding, Professor Graham Heaslip, Head of School of Engineering, ATU Galway-Mayo, says “ATU has a long and successful history of apprenticeship delivery dating back to the 1970s.

"This investment reaffirms ATU’s strong commitment to expanding the apprenticeship provision across the region, from Galway to Donegal.

"For the first time apprenticeship courses will be delivered in Killybegs and Castlebar.

"These additional apprenticeship places will help us grow to meet the demands of Irelands growing apprenticeship population.”

Thomas Dowling, Head of Faculty of Engineering and Technology, ATU Donegal, said, “The facilities we are creating will be able to cater to higher numbers in the future in the case of Metal Fab and Refrigeration”.