The Trades Certification Board is an autonomous body with its own secretariat. The members are representative of both sides of industry, of the Plumbers and Electricians Registration Boards, the Motor Trade Certification Board, the Technical Education Association, the Post-primary Teachers' Association, and the Department of Education, together with the Commissioner of Apprenticeship and a chairman appointed by the Minister of Education. An important feature of the Board's activities is close cooperation with industry both at Board level and at committee level, as well as with the schools.

Apprentices are encouraged to sit for the Board's examinations but they are under no obligation to do so. They do, however, have to attend courses of instruction which are based on the Board's syllabuses. The fifteenth annual report of the Board shows that it now provides for 36 trades and had 13,880 candidates in 1963. Up to 31 March 1964, the Board had issued 16,994 trade certificates and 4,575 advanced trade certificates.