Ms Louise Coyle:

I am from mid-Ulster myself. One of the issues with employment is where it is based, how far people have to travel, and whether there is the infrastructure to get them to and from work and to and from education and apprenticeships. When talking about young women, there is the issue of how apprenticeships are sold to young women and what opportunities there are. I am obviously of the view that a young woman should be doing engineering as much as a young man, but we still have a way to go in terms of trying to promote that, even within businesses and organisations, as well as with the young women themselves. Structurally, we must address the barriers for young women, particularly if they have any kind of caring responsibilities, and we must try to reduce those. Given we are offering the opportunity, we must make sure there are no barriers in place preventing them from accessing that opportunity, and that includes where it is located. We are a small place but it sometimes feels very big when people are trying to get from one place to another and there is no infrastructure to enable them to do that.