Mr. David Duffy:

A career we might not associate with STEM is in the area of construction studies, design, construction graphics and that sort of thing. Given the requirement for retrofitting and so on, apprenticeships in those areas are obviously incredibly important.

Regarding role models, we could certainly benefit from more diversity in the teaching profession. A number of colleagues in higher education institutions along the west coast have done a lot of work on this. The big issue probably relates to the opportunity and financial cost after a longer period of initial teacher education. In many cases it can take six years. Someone contemplating spending six years in college studying to be a teacher needs to have quite a bit of social capital and financial capital to begin with. That would help in getting a more diverse teaching profession.

Ms Ní Chéileachair rightly spoke about outdoor classrooms and so on. There are some really useful initiatives happening and I know last week's hearings looked at them in detail. It would be worth the committee's time to look at the North East Further & Higher Education Alliance initiative. It is a collaboration between the Dundalk Institute of Technology, the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board and a number of local businesses.

Many of the institutions in line with businesses in the area do a lot of QQI level 5 for students whose maths ability would not be great and in order to do a STEM subject at higher or further education they might need to do that. I note this week is Engineer's Week. However, I sound a note of caution. While supports from businesses are very valuable and important, we tend to find that it is great if the school or college is located close to a multinational company, for example. However, for a small institution and a rural area it is not always as simple. If the economy is not doing as well as it has been recently, those supports for educational institutions are often the first ones businesses cut. I absolutely understand why they do that, but if we are to mainstream something it needs to be available all the time to everybody.