Mr. Michael Fitzgerald:

I have a note of hope. Certainly, from our experience, quite a number of apprentices come to us from non-STEM backgrounds. The entry qualification is quite low. It is junior certificate. The initial entry has been set quite low by SOLAS. We get a number of people, particularly mature students, who have come through areas such as social care, nursing and other areas into STEM and into our apprenticeships.

We assume on day one that we have to provide all training. We do not make any assumptions based on people's backgrounds, what they know, what they have done in school, or anything else. Provided they have the basic core competency, we will be able to train them as technicians and engineers in the future. Some of our finest apprentices and network technicians, NTs, have come through from completely non-traditional backgrounds. Basically, it is never too late to be an apprentice.