Ms Emily Sheridan:

In reference to the pilot programmes idea, I find it hard to believe many schools feel they have the capacity to take on additional work so it kind of has to be something that is made available but made available in a way they can actually taken on and not just giving them an additional workload.

On representation and mentors, as Dr. O'Sullivan said, a lot of that exists already. Of course it can be expanded but in having a combined approach, the infrastructure that is already there is very important. I do not know whether SFI itself can even keep track of what it is funding because there is so much. That is fantastic but there needs to be a package of measures to be delivered to schools and career guidance councillors who know what is available, including stuff like the STEM passport for inclusion and STEM in the classroom where you go in and visit. It is important to have a mentor, even to look up to. Of course, students want to see someone they can relate to. That is a big thing. It has to be someone who seems like themselves so they can see themselves in them but also someone they think is cool. It is a silly thing to say but science is often portrayed as something - and I am not saying that is me - very clinical or that you have to be a certain kind of person for it. Just to meet regular people who are exactly like you has a major impact.

There are programmes already out there. The money has already been spent and these are already being funded. Schools must be made aware of this. They can be expanded but without even spending a cent it has to be put together as there is an opportunity for uptake there. The mentor programmes must be expanded as well. The support and infrastructure should be expanded. Not only do we need to add extra but we need to expand the ones we have and give them the capacity to spread wider. We have done online education for the past few years and I do not know why, if there is not a teacher in a regional area, we cannot expand the libraries and computer classes to a computer programme. I do not think we need to end up hiring thousands more people to start off these programmes to get those skills into schools. We have the capacity that is within the education system at the moment and what has been built over the past two years. There are already people who do after-school subjects as optionals. It is something that exists. It can be added in. We have teachers who then do it in loads of different classrooms. Of course there is a correcting aspect and wider things but they can be expanded in a much easier way than it might seem to begin with, especially building on the capacity of the past two years.