Dr. Bryan Maguire:

I am glad to the hear the Senator is a fan of the NFQ fan. It is a signature of the coherence we have in our system across the further and higher education system. The apprenticeship is one example of that. It is also an example of where there is complementarity between what QQI and the HEA do. The HEA, initially through the co-operation with SOLAS in the Apprenticeship Council and in future through the national apprenticeship office when it is established under the apprenticeship action plan, co-operates on identifying which fields get funded and the direction of funding to the institutions. When it comes to setting out what the academic parameters are, that falls more to QQI. It has issued quality assurance guidelines on what we expect to see in programmes of apprenticeship. We have a review process that sees that they are being implemented either directly by QQI, in the case of private sector institutions, or indirectly through the reporting the institutions make to QQI of their activities in apprenticeship, for example. One can see there is some potential for double reporting but that is why we have worked so closely with Mr. Conlon and his colleagues to streamline this in order that they are not saying one thing to QQI one week and something else to the HEA the following week.