Dr. Mary-Liz Trant:

We have a network of 47 officers around the country who work with employers and ETBs. They do a great deal of work and some of them do up to three or four school visits a week. Supports are provided to them to engage students and get those conversations going. Parents are also a significant constituency, and we link in with the National Parents Council and so on. This is all about a large transformation and change project where parents, potentially young people and career changers see apprenticeship as an option. When young people are thinking about what they want to do when they leave school or later in their careers, and when they are looking at the full range of what they might do to further and develop their career, apprenticeship is a great earn-and-learn opportunity and an interesting option.

Career guidance counsellors, which I mentioned, teachers and schools are also highly influential. We work with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, where Beatrice Dooley is introducing continuing professional development for guidance counsellors, which specifically briefs them on apprenticeship, traineeship and all work-based learning. This will help to ensure when students and school are thinking and talking about what they want to do all of these opportunities will be very much available to them, and the students will know about those opportunities.