Ms Yvonne Croskery:

I will cover the totality of questions. Mr. Maskey raised youth unemployment, particularly in areas of very high unemployment in Northern Ireland, and I will outline a range of measures we are taking. Mr. Maskey will be aware of our strategy for people not in education, employment or training, NEET, launched in May 2012, which is a cross-departmental strategy to deal with the NEET situation. Reading the report of the committee, one can clearly see the percentages of NEET in Northern Ireland, 14.1%, and in Border regions, 18.3%. It is a very common issue across our island. The strategy has three tiers: preventing young people from missing opportunities for education and training; helping people in the 16 to 18 age group, especially those facing barriers; and assisting the unemployed young people. From this year, we have been funding the NEET strategy through the European Social Fund.

Mr. Maskey mentioned the Local Employment Intermediary Service, LEMIS. LEMIS is continuing. We published a very detailed evaluation of our NEET strategy and will come forward with a refresh following this evaluation. A part of my challenge, we are looking at how we join up the employability piece with united youth, examining the two funding streams, PEACE IV and the European Social Fund, particularly moving towards the next call in 2017 and 2018, so we give a holistic approach to our NEET young people in Northern Ireland, using PEACE IV for the citizenship and good relations aspect on a cross-Border basis. We are seeking to work in partnership with the Border regions. We have been working very closely with the Youth Council of Ireland to see how we might go forward with it.

We have had our careers review in Northern Ireland. We are working in partnership with the Northern Ireland Minister for Education, Mr. John O'Dowd, MLA, and have guaranteed all our young people in Northern Ireland impartial guidance in their final year of school. Some 95% of young people have taken up the offer. We have a Youth Guarantee through our training for success programme, which guarantees every young person in Northern Ireland aged 16 to 17 an opportunity of a training place. I have 13 united youth pilots across Northern Ireland, including in areas of high NEET youth unemployment. We are very excited. Initial feedback has shown that innovative approaches from voluntary and community sectors are coming forward using a range of measures to engage young people who have had a very bad experience in the education sector, using, for example, shared support in a number of very innovative ways, examining our shared identity and employability needs. The young people are able to avail of their benefits, which is exciting. We are paying a stipend with it. It is an innovative approach.

We had a target of 365 young people. The pilot was launched at the end of August and approximately 290 young people have been recruited to united youth so far. My department has just finished a root-and-branch review of apprenticeship and youth training in Northern Ireland and we are coming forward with a new system of learning at level 2. The review of youth training at level 2, which will replace a range of interventions we had, will provide a professional and technical system of learning for our young people who do not have five GCSEs including maths and English. It reflects the dual aims of the system. It will provide young people with a solid foundation of skills, experience and qualifications that are recognised and valued by employers relevant to today's labour market. The broad-based skills will include work-based learning either through an employed or non-employed, virtual route.

As I have said, it will be focused on all young people in Northern Ireland between the ages of 16 and 24 who do not hold five GCSEs, including maths and English. We are very excited about this concept. The new professional and technical system of learning that is being built will be equal to the academic route and will be recognised by the academic route. The advisory forum we have set up in partnership with employers and trade unions will ensure employers are central to this process. It will help to inform the curriculum to ensure we get it right. This new system will allow for progression into an apprenticeship or into sustained employment. We have had a radical root-and-branch reform of our apprenticeships. A brand new system will be in place from September 2016. We see this as a parallel route of equal value that will allow young people to go through level 3 apprenticeships or sub-degree apprenticeships through higher-level apprenticeships. It will allow them to move into new jobs and roles throughout their careers. It will allow them to progress all the way to level 8, which is PhD level, with their qualifications recognised as part of the system.

This is the most radical thing that the current Minister or any Minister in Northern Ireland has ever been involved in and we are very excited about it. We are working with our partners in the Northern Ireland Department of Education. We are aware that issues can arise when young people make choices at the age of 14. If we have a good, robust, distinctive, professional and technical qualifications route, young people will be able to choose an alternative pathway that will offer value in terms of seamless progression right through to higher education, with work-based learning being built around that. The Northern Ireland Minister for Employment and Learning, Dr. Stephen Farry, launched a skills barometer in Northern Ireland a fortnight ago. This initiative, which is being taken forward by the University of Ulster's centre of economic policy, is setting out for our Department and for Northern Ireland what the skills demands of the Northern Ireland economy are going to be from now until 2025. It will be refreshed on a constant basis. We are now able to look at how we can better match demand with supply with regard to particular pockets of unemployment in Northern Ireland.

We make sure the funding we invest is targeted where it is needed. We provide generous funding levels in areas where we know there will be jobs that will be able to command the commensurate salary of a technically well-skilled young person. We are working hard on that. We have invested significantly in west Belfast. We built a brand new further education campus, known as e3, there. It has been one of the most successful investments we have made in terms of really turning around education and skills training in Northern Ireland. Investment has been made in cutting-edge equipment there. I have to say that people are travelling across Belfast and from further afield to west Belfast to avail of the specialist training offered at the campus. For example, training in the specialist area of composites is provided there.

I can respond to Mr. Maskey's question by firmly saying that we are working with the Northern Ireland Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure. We have had discussions about piloting new level 3 apprenticeships this year through the change fund in Northern Ireland. Our Minister was able to secure €7.5 million. We are piloting between 350 and 400 higher-level apprenticeships at sub-degree level. This is quite a new approach for Northern Ireland. Those apprenticeships will allow seamless progression into higher education, university degrees and even as far as PhD level. We are working with the Northern Ireland Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure to see how we might do that through all the social clauses and contracts. I hope I have given a good broad view of what we are doing.

Senator White asked specifically about the 13 pilot programmes. We are totally committed to moving forward with the united youth programme. We are using PEACE IV funding for the youth initiative aspect of that programme. This allows our neighbours in the Border areas to avail of that funding. We work in partnership. As I have said, the activities of the first working group that will be given this money will kick off around the first week of December. I will chair that group, which is looking forward to developing an innovative programme using the information from the pilot programmes. It is no longer a case of one size fits all. We will use all the different learning to ascertain what works. No single pilot programme can best be taken in isolation. We will pick the bits that work best and focus on them. I have to say that the pilot programmes have been particularly useful in areas where there are many young people who are not in education, employment or training and where there are high levels of deprivation as well. We are doing all we can there.