Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

I agree with the Deputy. The area of employer support must be examined. There is a new action plan for apprenticeships being developed and that would be one of the core areas of focus. It is obviously the responsibility of our parent Department, but we are closely feeding into that. There should be more parity of esteem in terms of how employers are supported between the craft apprenticeships and some of the new apprenticeships. At present, off-the-job training for the craft apprenticeships is fully funded by the State. That is not the case for the new apprenticeships. That is an area that must be looked at in the new apprenticeship action plan.

The incentive scheme has made a difference. We were a little behind earlier in the year, approximately 40% year on year, because we could not open the training centres and run the apprenticeship programmes. The gap is down to 20% because we are catching up and ramping up now. The new apprenticeship registrations are now on a par with last year after catching up, but we need more action and fairness in terms of how we deal with employers. We have made good progress in recent years, from approximately 3,000 employers taking on apprenticeships to more than 6,000, but there is a long way to go. I admit that, and we are working with our parent Department to put an action plan in place that will deliver on that.