Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

Due to the effect of training centres being closed, we lost three or four months. It was primarily in the craft apprenticeship area because this is what the further education and training centres deliver. The latest figure for this year's registrations - to the end of November - is 4,700. This is down about 20% on where we were at the end of November last year. Earlier this year we were 40% behind, so there has been a bit of a catch-up there. I am pleased to say that the new apprenticeships have got back on track and the numbers are on par with 2019. We have stabilised it and we are catching up.

On the question of what we are doing to address it, there are three things. One, as we said earlier, is that we are trying to get additional capacity in our training centres so we can take on additional numbers. We must keep to social distancing requirements and so on, which is a constraint. The second aspect is that we are trying to move some of the apprenticeships' curriculums online. Up to now it has all been workshop-based but there are definite elements that can go online. The third thing is around those apprentices who have the competency to progress beyond the phase. We are introducing competency-based assessments to allow them to progress at a faster rate.