Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael)
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I am sorry I missed the start of our guests' presentation but I have read the material. If there are a lot of unfilled posts or posts that are difficult to fill, what is industry doing about creating the environment for people to go into apprenticeships, in particular? There are now 80 apprenticeships in place but only 20% are newly formed apprenticeships. It does not seem that industry has got on board with creating hubs through which people can take up apprenticeships. It is the old traditional apprenticeships that are scooping the pool. I do not think that is because of a lack of interest among potential applicants. It is that there is no central hub. One of the most successful apprenticeships has been in financial services, where the association has created a central hub, so people make one application and do not have to find an employer or know someone. Is that happening in the sector?

Equally, transition year, TY, is a great opportunity to gain access to young people who are still at a pretty formative stage. Has the sector developed a TY programme? In my experience, many kids are just scrounging around looking for something. They come into my office, where I am not sure they learn much about physics. The reality is that if we want to have an influence, there is a golden opportunity for a group to get together and create a programme that will take on X hundred TY students. It should not be too difficult to organise. What can be done? How can we operate collectively? I do not believe the Department of Education or Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment can do it on its own.

I am interested in knowing the delegates' sense of what is happening in the school system. Trying to attract women to STEM subjects has long been pursued and there are some very active people trying to promote them. How is this going? Are we seeing an increase in women taking up STEM subjects?

What about assessment and the curriculum? To what extent is "teaching to the test", which is still narrow enough and memory based, killing the scientific spirit, which could be much more creative if the structure were not quite so rigid? Is there scope for making this area more attractive? One of the objectives of leaving certificate reform was to create an apprenticeship stream that would be much more solid and respected. I do not believe that has been achieved yet. How do we create it? Having physics teachers or people with experience would help but I think the matter is more profound than one that requires teaching a few teachers to be physics oriented. From the delegates' experience of countries that are way ahead of us, are there things we could be doing in the school system to make the subject matter more accepted such that the mammies and daddies of Ireland will want to see their kids involved?