Dr. Anthony Soares:

I thank the speaker for the questions. Before I answer, unfortunately, because she has joined us today from Scotland, Ms Dickson has to scoot off now, if the committee is okay with that.

On the points just raised about the young people's groups that were involved in the development of the first draft of this charter, one of the things they pointed to was the fact they felt they were undervalued if they did not choose a university degree as their pathway in education, and if they chose anything that was outside of that, it was seen as being of lesser value. These are groups of young people from North and South talking about that attitude, how it has to change, and how more emphasis and more value has to be given to those vocational qualifications, which are alternative paths to different careers. Young people on both sides of the Border are saying we are obsessed with degrees, and they are told they must get a degree, with the result they do not feel valued.

There are opportunities to co-operate on a North-South basis on apprenticeships and training. Employers are talking about the same issues in regard to the labour force and skills. As an island, and as islands, we will be facing huge challenges in terms of the skills that will be needed in the future economy, not in the next five, ten or 15 years but in the next 20 years. The question is what we are going to need and how we are going to achieve those goals. Co-operation is one of the ways we can achieve that at a lesser cost for everybody.