Mr. Tom Grady:

If we were making recommendations for the next action plan, one of them would be that the whole area of assessment needs to be looked at again. That has been initiated. Technology has moved on. The revalidation is happening. The ambition of the existing action plan was to have a new single system and for quality to be a key objective. We have made progress but we are certainly not there. Having been through the process of designing new apprenticeships and getting them certified, I know it is expensive and labour-intensive work. It takes a lot of work on the ground to maintain that quality. That is very important to us.

On finance, it is key that ETBs have certainty around finance in the coming weeks because we are in a difficult position with that at the moment. We are confident that it is being sorted out.