Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

The Deputy is correct. During the initial period of lockdown, higher education was closed for the same period. We reopened apprenticeships in September and all the practical and laboratory-based courses that further education and training, FET, offers were up and running, but I take the Deputy's point. We fed information into the Department, as has the Higher Education Authority, HEA, on additional capital investment, essentially to expand the capacity for apprenticeship provision during this period in which we need to catch up, but we also must expand. That is not the only answer. We must look at how parts of apprenticeships can be delivered online. I do not believe it all necessarily has to be in the workshop setting. We also must use competency assessments, where appropriate, to verify the skills of the apprentices and allow them to progress. That is the way to do it as well.