Mr. Martin Scattergood:

My grandad did an apprenticeship about 70 years ago with Irish Rail. He was in Bolton Street and I am pretty sure that when I was there some of the same machinery was still there. I am sure his initials were on the desk; my nanny told me to look out for them.

In terms of sheet metal work, we do a lot of machine work for catering equipment and so on. That requires a lot of computer work. When people need something burned or CNC lasered out, companies expect people to know how to use these machines. My company does not have one, but we do a lot of that work. People who go to college are shown how to do the work on a computer screen, but they need to use the equipment. Sometimes the equipment is not available. There is a lot of old machinery which needs to be upgraded.

Companies are sending people to college to learn how to do their trade, but when they get there the trade is about 50 years behind given the equipment that is available. The teachers are fantastic and make things work. People watch a lot of slide shows and stuff like that. Students are using computers. There is software called AutoCAD, for which there is a licence. The college only had ten licences, but there were 12 in our class. We had to switch out the licences on the computer. If we had 20 licenses for the software we would be able to use it, but the teachers made it work. Everything went fine. The teachers make it work, but on the sheet metal and welding side, as well as metalwork, things were somewhat behind in comparison to electricians. There are tonnes of electricians. All of it needs to be upgraded.