Dr. Jim Murray:

Senator Byrne had a query around accreditation of apprenticeships in the higher education institutions. There are statutory quality assurance guidelines to which all providers of apprenticeships have to adhere. They then would be operated through the awarding bodies and the higher education institutions for apprenticeships at levels 6 to 10. They would be the accrediting bodies in those instances but operating under national guidelines.

In terms of legislation, the issue is around the policies and processes that flow out of multiple sets of legislation. That is where work among the agencies and providers can, over time, work on streamlining those processes. It is necessary because it helps to break the logjam in terms of the throughput of programmes coming through the system.

Deputy Catherine Martin had an interesting idea about having the Athena SWAN Charter for apprenticeships. We may be able to look at that in due course.

On the gender issue and access more broadly, as well as the system level activities, which Mr. Phil O'Flaherty and Dr. Mary-Liz Trant have articulated, there are also institutional on the ground efforts. I know DIT has a new programme called access to apprenticeship. It is run in three cycles over 12 weeks. It would bring in many young kids from socially and economically deprived areas to sample the different types of apprenticeship. That is the successful way of bringing people into the system. DIT has also had an open day specifically targeted towards women. There are many local initiatives complementing the central efforts.