Ms Carol Hanney:

The overpayments were identified within the training centre itself and immediate action was taken. The overpayments occurred because the first intake of the new version 3 of the aircraft mechanic apprenticeship reached phase 4. It was the first group of apprentices to be registered on the new schedule of phases for the complete aircraft mechanic apprenticeship programme. It was a new phase of a programme. There was a very short lead-in time of only two weeks as opposed to eight weeks. The training centre had not been completely briefed and was not completely on top of it when it was introduced. There were anomalies in correspondence. There was confusion about phase numbers. Procedural changes have been brought in since then, including additional checks, which have been implemented as a result of the overpayments identified. As soon as the payments were identified, measures were put in place to contact the apprentices and seek recoupment. At this stage, the apprentices had finished in the training centre and many efforts were put into contacting them in different ways but it was unsuccessful. Eventually it was considered prudent to write off those exceptional overpayments and they were written off. We talked to SOLAS about that and it noted it as well.