Mr. Denis Rowan:

I will give the committee some information that we have to date. The forecast for the year was that 1,900 young people were to be registered. That is based on our research team looking at last year, this year and next year. To the middle of June, there were 1,214, so we will be way ahead. It is difficult to predict the demand precisely. A total of 1,214 young people have been registered this year to the middle of June. September would be the next peak time. We expect the number to increase quite a lot. That is a 49% increase on last year. In effect, that is a significant return to what it was.

As to what type of ideas we have or people who have approached us, Mr. Flaherty has covered them. I have to say that we are not developing an apprenticeship; we are looking at, and may test out, some ideas that may eventually lead to apprenticeship. We do not want to pre-empt the work.

The areas of chefs, retail and ICT are the three areas on which we have been approached and on which we are having talks. We are working through those. If we test something out, it will be a programme that will be an apprenticeship look-alike but it will not be an apprenticeship course.