Northern Regional College has confirmed that it is unable to offer year 1 of its electrical installation course for the 2024-25 academic year due to staffing and recruitment challenges. That has massive ramifications for the wider construction industry.

Electrical installation courses are usually very well regulated and are employer-led. That means that, if a firm with 100 employees wants to recruit first-year apprentices, the firm decides how many it requires and sends them to the course. It is the same for a self-employed electrician who needs a first-year apprentice; they will send the young person to the course. If there is no year-1 intake, it will badly damage not only the electrical industry but the wider construction industry. I suggest that the electrical installation course may not be the only course under severe pressure when it comes to taking students in this academic year or in the future.

It also has a devastating impact on this year's young people who aspire to become electricians. The electrical installation trade is a very good one. It is very well paid. It is hard work, but it is a very good trade to have. For young people, especially those from working-class areas, a trade may be the only way to get reliable, good wages. It will have a devastating effect not only in my constituency of North Antrim but further afield in the Northern Regional College's catchment area.

I ask the Minister for the Economy to look into the matter and to step in, if need be, to ensure that the recruitment and staffing challenge does not happen again and that the course can be rescued for the forthcoming academic year.