Dr. Phillip Smyth:

On Deputy Jan O'Sullivan's questions, within the CAO system there has been a decline in demand for levels 6, 7 and 8 qualifications. This includes a decline in applicants for hospitality related courses in general across the institutes of technology and the university sector. That has been the case for the Shannon College of Hotel Management and NUI Galway, and it has transferred through to the number of students coming to our colleges. In Shannon we were reasonably well protected because our numbers had been very high and we still have the interview process. It is also the case that many of our applicants have listed our college as a first, second or third preference, so many of them would hold. I have spoken to some of the people in the training centres in the last couple of weeks who have found it more difficult to join the excellent courses on offer. Anecdotally, there has been chat in the institute of technology about closing particular programmes because not enough people are applying for them. That is just in the area of hospitality.

The educational mark is of major benefit to our college in terms of our international marketing. In Switzerland it is a philosophical issue. If one of our students goes back to work in a hotel in Switzerland, perhaps for personal reasons, he or she would find it extremely difficult to progress on the management side because the Swiss do not believe in moving people very quickly through companies. They want the skills of the student to be deeply embedded. They also do not want to see their own apprentices being outstripped by people who have not experienced the same basic training. They do not have a problem with that. In my main submission I said that at a meeting with Swiss business people they will often boast about the actual skills they still possess. It could be in IT, woodwork or another area but they still hold that in high regard, both for themselves and for other people.

On WorldSkills, from an employment and apprenticeship point of view, having the WorldSkills come to Ireland would be like hosting the World Cup. There would be a constant, protracted competition for eight or nine days, featuring 60 different skills. Every conceivable kind of skill would be featured.

Gold medals would be awarded and there would be constant razzmatazz. Something like that would have an impact on young people, particularly if we used it properly, projected it through the media and so on.

Regarding transition year, our university has been providing taster days in all programmes for a while. During study week when our lecturers are not teaching, we invite schools to bring in groups of transition year students and give them a taste of the programme - a little time in the kitchen, a little time in the restaurant. We also given them an overall feel of the business subjects, including accounting and economics. There might be a fun element with a little present when they go away and so on. We do all of that just to give them something else to consider.

Regarding schools liaison officers, we had become successful in international recruitment by the start of the boom in 2003 or 2004, but all of a sudden, our Irish numbers started to decline. After considering the issue a great deal, we went with the idea of schools liaison officers. We have always used our own graduates, young people who have worked in the industry. This initiative has been immensely successful. Coming from the hospitality sector, it was sometimes difficult to get into schools that were at the top of the league tables, but when we actually got in, our schools liaison officers did a good job and motivated people, the schools started inviting us back and we started developing relationships with them. If the overall education and training board, ETB, programme for developing apprenticeships can go into schools and use qualified apprentices, people at different stages who can talk about their experiences, then young people will relate.