Dr. Kara McGann:

Every day is a school day. I had not heard the term "greying sector" before. In terms of other sectors and apprenticeships generally, we are looking for increased investment in a generation of apprentices to encourage enterprise engagement, reduce on-the-job training costs and examine strategic innovation in that space. We have a number of apprenticeships connected to sectors we work with, such as pharmaceutical, financial services and so on. It is a case of trying to encourage uptake in those sectors. It is something of which we are very aware and we need to keep the encouragement going. Sometimes I think it is about awareness raising. If we have not done something before we need to learn what is involved and how we go about it. Greater awareness is being raised in those areas.

A figure of 10,000 is a significant number to get to. We need to see it. It is a vital part of the infrastructure of how we work and a way of connecting education and skills to the labour market.

It is really important that we see that. It is an area we are very aware of and are pushing on.