Dr. Jim Murray:

On the approval of apprenticeships, there is also a stage where an industrial training order has to be developed. It has to go forward for approval through the national apprenticeship office as a preliminary before it would even come near curriculum development. That also involves an occupational profile being developed around the research on the numbers that are likely to take it. The idea behind the new apprenticeships is that they will be flexible and they may meet short-term needs and, if they change, they do not necessarily have to go on forever. The aspiration is that we can develop apprenticeships as and when the need arises and then perhaps retire them if a particular area no longer needs them.