Ms Kathleen Stack:

It was a range of questions and we will take them between us if that is okay. On the question about people over 62, we have reviewed the scheme and it is with the Minister currently. She is giving it thought and we met her yesterday. I would expect some outcome on that fairly soon. We certainly hope it will continue as it has proven worthwhile. We will have an outcome on that fairly soon.

JobPath is the Government activation service and approximately 130,000 people have been referred to it. It is a two-phase process, so in the first year JobPath providers work with the unemployed person, helping them to try to get a job, and at the end of the 12 months one sees where one is at. There is a second phase where the JobPath provider continues to work with the person if he or she gets a job and supports the person in employment. Having said that, there are 30,000 people who have come back from JobPath in recent months and completed the first year. I mentioned that in the opening statement. We are certainly targeting those in filling community employment vacancies. They are a cohort we look at. When somebody leaves JobPath, there is an exit plan that can highlight particular difficulties, such as the need for further training or other matters. We are trying to match JobPath returnees with CE vacancies. I will let Ms Shanley speak to the training, which is very much part of the activation process. It relates to areas such as child care and social care, where there is recognised and industry-level training that improves a person's chances of employment in the open labour market.

We have probably done well to have kept number of participants where they are in light of a declining live register. If they are the same now as they were five years ago, it is positive and it should be recognised that we did well in that regard. We have approximately 20% of the long-term unemployed - those unemployed for more than 12 months - on community employment schemes.

Five years ago it was at about 11% and so it has worked. As I mentioned in my opening statement the changes only kicked in from July and we are still working through them. They are certainly helping in increasing the pool of people available for CE places.

I will ask Ms Shanley to talk about training.