Yesterday I attended the British Educational Training and Technology (BETT) Show at Excel and had a very useful discussion with a representative of the DfE who had a stand at the show. The stand was not cheap based on the other stands in the show, probably costing in excess of £25,000 and it was well fitted out with civil servants and graphics. Thus the overall cost of the stand was likely to have been nearer £35,000. After I had raised my concerns about the issue of STEM education as raised in the House of Commons by Nicholas Soames, I asked the person I spoke to about apprenticeships. He conceded that there were no representatives on the stand from the apprenticeship area of their department during this weeks show. This seemed to be very disappointing, bearing in mind that many of the commercial stands included references to educational apprenticeships and although my own comments related to engineering apprenticeships, I think it was a mistake that should be put right for next years event, particularly if the Government is serious about increasing the number of apprenticeships moving forward. After all the number of Schools attending the show would have run into the thousands and each one of them could potentially have benefited from a focus on this theme.