Apprentices can’t afford deodorant, are lugging heavy construction tools on buses for hours and are choosing between essentials like food and fuel because of the cost of living crisis.
Young trades workers are telling how they have cut back on groceries, struggle to pay rent and work extra hours in the evenings and over weekends just to make ends meet.
And some are leaving the training courses for vital trades, which the country desperately needs, because they can’t afford to keep up with the soaring cost of living.
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The hard pressed trainee tradesmen and tradeswomen are usually paid below the minimum wage as they learn their craft, so the rising costs of everything is hitting them particularly hard this year.
The level of their suffering is revealed in a new survey from Sinn Fein’s higher education spokeswoman, Rose Conway-Walsh.
Among the findings are that 84% are cutting down on essentials like food or heat, while 72% have gone into debt because of rising prices.
Sinn Fein is calling for the government to divert some of the €1.1billion in the National Training Fund for workers and the unemployed to apprentices.
Meanwhile, apprentices have told Ms Conway-Walsh how hard it is to live on their low wages or training grants.
One apprentice carpenter said: “Had to cut groceries and home heating, was frozen all winter while I was working 40 hours a week
“I’ve been an apprentice since November 2020, still don’t know about college, still behind on money and the cost of everything is rising all around me.”
An apprentice mechanic from Roscommon said: “Struggling buying my own tools that cost a fortune and earning €5 an hour - going to work a 40 hour week and only earn €195.”
An apprentice electrician from Meath said: “I’m currently doing an apprenticeship as an electrician for just over €6 an hour, I’ve had to take on an evening and weekend job to survive, I haven’t had a day off or rest since Christmas.”
Another apprentice, a plumber from Wexford, said: “Between petrol and diesel, buying own tools, standard of living has gone down massively since starting my apprenticeship, some weeks I can’t even afford a can of deodorant.”
The apprentices also spoke about the effect it is all having on their mental health.
And apprentices are dropping out because of the cost of living.
A former carpenter apprentice from Donegal said: “Young men and women are struggling, I as well as many others have had to drop from our apprenticeships because of the increased cost of living.”
The news of their struggles comes as the country is crying out for qualified tradesmen to build houses with the nation in the grip of a housing crisis.
Ms Conway-Walsh said: “The government needs to wake up to the reality of what life is like for apprentices in Ireland and act urgently to ensure that they get a much-needed break from the cost of living crisis.”
The survey received 361 responses after Sinn Fein put the call out on social media and worked with ETBs (Educational Training Boards), students unions, the Connect union and others to advertise the survey.
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