Ms Meadhbh Costello:

It is welcome to see the fund unlocked but we would like to see a stronger employer voice on how it is spent. We would like to see some of the funding for apprenticeships invested in off-the-job training and covering those costs, particularly for SMEs that may not be able to carry that cost when they are employing an apprentice. We would also consider how to put in place scalable funding for successful consortia apprenticeship programmes. Currently, there does not seem to be a mechanism whereby successful programmes can scale and grow regionally and nationally. Beyond the apprenticeship system, we would like to see the introduction of a national training voucher scheme, whereby employers could work with the education and training sector to identify skills needs and use a voucher to invest in upskilling their workforce in critical areas of skills needs.