Mr. Tom Rourke:

I thank the committee for its time. The endorsement cannot be underestimated in terms of the perception of the programme. I smiled when the Acting Chairman mentioned CoderDojo because that comes up a great deal. When we spoke to the Minister of State last week, I told him I had heard that over many years the parents of the founder of CoderDojo tried to encourage him into one of the more traditional professions, from which they had come. He is a great example of the mixture of the practical and the workplace. It happened in a particular way for him and we are talking about a different model, but the positive perceptions of that programme through word of mouth and recognition of its value by the right people have been instrumental in its becoming a global phenomenon from modest beginnings. A key issue for us will be the perception that the people who come through this programme have made a positive choice and not a lesser one than going the academic route. We are confident about employability because we know industry needs these people, but we need the broader community to recognise that this is a positive and worthwhile choice for jobseekers, whether they are straight out of secondary education or unemployed and seeking to reskill, and not second best. The committee's endorsement of that would be hugely helpful. I thank members for their time.