Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

I thank the Senator.

I will take the start and then Dr. Trant can take the second part. First, we acknowledge there is a bit of funding pressure. I will explain very quickly how the system works. The ETBs sit down with local enterprise offices, LEOs, at the start of the year and figure out how much capacity is available for phase two provision. Then SOLAS, as the funder of the system and as the co-ordinating provider for apprenticeships, sets the budget for the year based on the money that has been allocated through the Government. We then plan and schedule all the phase 2 apprenticeship classes through the year. We are the ultimate planner and scheduler of that. When we made the allocations to ETBs this year for further education and training, FET, and apprenticeships it became clear that there was a much increased liability in our phase 4 and phase 6 allowances. For the benefit those who do not understand the system in depth, ETBs deliver phase 2, the technological universities deliver phase 4 and phase 6, but the ETBs actually have to pay the allowances to the apprentices who are doing phase 4 and phase 6 provision. This is why it is a complicated kind of funding equation. The ETBs came back and said there was a significantly increased phase 4 and phase 6 liability as a result of the ramp-up of the phase 2 provision last year. This prompted a lot of the concern that the members are hearing about and reading about. I will give assurance on that. We have written to the chief executives of the ETBs to assure them funding will be made available to allow them to deliver all the scheduled phase 2 classes and pay all the phase 4 and phase 6 allowances. We are currently finalising a plan for phase 2 provision over the remainder of the year. The idea is that we need to make sure we are training as many people as we are registering. We registered around 7,000 last year. We are going to make sure that the ETBs train at least 7,000 in 2025 as well. From this, they will tell us that the next step they need is confirmation of the funding allocation they will receive in order to address that situation.