Ms Mairéad Boland:

It is done in partnership with the industry through the consortium. Apprenticeships are very much industry led. Our statutory quality assurance guidelines set out clearly that there should be very clear lines of communication between the provider and the consortium to ensure that where there are updates or changes in the external environment, the programme has sufficiently flexible structures in place to feed into that.

The development and design of an apprenticeship programme is also informed by the occupational profile that is developed by the consortium and approved by the National Apprenticeship Alliance. It is also aligned with QQI's professional award-type descriptors, which are designed to look at more professional-oriented qualifications, which, as the Senator can understand, is very appropriate for apprenticeships.