Ms Karan O'Loughlin:

The Deputy will find that there are different perspectives on this. The Deputy might pick up on the subtext here. While there seems to be a willingness to address the trainee issue, there is no doubt that there is a serious problem with trainees in the industry. We do not know who they are or where they are and they cannot be tracked. They are trainees for years because they get bits and pieces of work and cannot count up their time to see how long they have been a trainee for. If one is lucky enough to work continuously on one production after another he or she might be able to get themselves over the line. If a person is working sporadically, it is possible to end up as a trainee for many years. Sometimes, when work is scarce, it is hard for trainees to take up trainee positions because experienced people will be out of work and a production company will decide that it does not need another prop person but will offer qualified people the trainee position. Qualified, experienced people end up working for trainee money. It is a problem, and with the best will in the world, if we wait around for all of the reports to finish and then for another period for funding, the problem will never be dealt with. Trainees need to be registered. There needs to be a pool of trainees to run through the industry. Collectively the industry needs to decide every year how many trainees it wants at the other end. They should be pooled for all of the productions so that we get a more professionalised system. There is absolutely no doubt but that there is an issue with trainees in the industry.