Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

I thank the Senator. I will deal with the first of those points and then I will pass over to my colleague, Dr. Trant, who has been leading on a lot of work on how we build the prestige of apprenticeships and widen participation in them.

On the Senator's point regarding skills gaps and needs, we benefit from having the skills and labour market research unit based in SOLAS. I am happy to send on more detailed statistics. Principally, the highest level needs we are seeing at the moment are around tech and skills related to the construction sector. The Senator hit on the fundamental point. Our main concern with regard to skills is not the skills we need for today, but the skills we need for the future world of work. It is fair to say that the days of doing a block of education and training between the ages of 17 and 21, and that serving people for the rest of their careers and their lives, are gone. We need a system that allows people to upskill and reskill continually throughout their careers and their lifetimes. We put a lot of focus into the workforce upskilling agenda through a programme called Skills to Advance. The principal and initial target of that programme are the 900,000 people in the workforce, many of them older workers, who do not have the equivalent of junior or leaving certificate qualifications. It is a really hard group to reach. There is a role for further education and training, FET, at local level, working with employers to upskill these people so that their jobs remain sustainable and they can adapt to new technology.

I am sure Mr. Healy will elaborate further on his role and workforce upskilling as well. At this point, I will hand over to Dr. Trant to deal with the Senator's second and third points.