Ms Helen McHenry:

This was about upskilling lower-skilled workers in respect of which the comment was very interesting. We have more people with lower skills in our region. While we send a lot of people to higher education, very often they do not return. A significant number of those in employment or looking for work have lower skills. The advantage of upskilling them is partly that it is more appropriate to the sectors we have in our region, which tend to be less high technology or knowledge based. Upskilling them in the areas in which they are likely to find work allows benefits. It also brings benefits to those companies because they are people who can improve productivity and be more innovative. Partly, it is a numbers thing and also it is what contribution they make to the type of industry and enterprise we have in the region. Obviously, higher skills are important and this is not a suggestion that we ignore them completely. It is just in terms of what we are doing in the region and the people who are living there and who are very often more anchored in the region. People going for higher skills or going out for education tend to be younger and more mobile, whereas focusing on the people one has and who are strongly attached to the region brings significant benefits. We have done a great deal of work previously on how enterprise, employment and education in terms of training and skills are all tied together and should be looked at as part of a whole so that it is possible to provide the training or entrepreneurial emphasis one needs by working across all three together.