Ms Lynne Keery:

We can also offer RPL through procedures we have with QQI. This is for people whose certification may not be recognised or does not have a comparable certification in Ireland. They can do recognition of prior learning and show evidence of what they have learned and what skills they have. There are ways around the issues.

Senator Daly's first question was about how we decide whether to do an apprenticeship if it is for only one company. Part of the validation process is that we have to be able to show that there will be a certain level of demand over time, which I think is stated as being five years in the validation document. Things have been validated without us being able to say that hundreds or thousands of people are going to take up a particular apprenticeship. It is possible to do it for smaller numbers and apprenticeships have been developed for just one company where there was a particular skill need. It is a question of weighing up the amount of work that goes into developing the curriculum validation and how long the programme would last. There was one for a combi-lift that became the OEM apprenticeship.