NDA submission on the action plan for apprenticeships 2026-2030

Apprenticeships are a route which offers people with disabilities an opportunity to gain valuable experience and skills that will lead to employment. Therefore, the National Disability Authority (NDA) welcomes the development of a new Action Plan for Apprenticeships as it provides an opportunity to put in place actions and objectives that will improve outcomes for disabled people. In our submission we highlight the need for support for disabled people to undertake apprenticeships and for employers to support apprentices. We discuss the need for accessibility, reasonable accommodations, flexibility and targets and explain how a Universal Design approach would provide an opportunity to be responsive and adaptive to the needs of all apprentices including disabled apprentices. We also called for better data collection and disaggregation.