Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

I think so. A few things are happening. I mentioned the work done by Louth and Meath ETB and the Southern Regional College around advanced manufacturing and engineering. That is a skills-based project. The idea is that schoolkids are offered taster programmes of apprenticeships or manufacturing skills training that it is hoped will spark their interest. As far as I know, that project covers 16 schools in counties Louth and Meath. It was widened to include four schools in Belfast last year and will move to ten schools next year. There is real potential to ramp that up and have it as a mainstream apprenticeship taster programme, which could work across the North and South. There is probably an existing structure between the ETB and the regional college. Maybe if the two Departments also gave it a little support, we could look at mainstream pathways to apprenticeship or a technical education programme.