Ms Lucianne Bird:

This is a very good question. I thank the Senator. All our programmes have work experience built in as a mandatory module. This means people get to pursue work experience. We also have work-related skills as part of the overall training. There is much that can be done to work with people to get them ready for the world of work. This is extremely important and there is a major focus in all our training on this area.

There is, however, much work to be done with the employer side of things. My colleague talked about the culture in employment and building the management skills and the awareness of managers to enable them to see diversity and inclusion as positive things within their workforce. We have a good bit to go with this aim. We have some examples of terrific partnerships that I could mention in this regard, including with the Mr. Price group. We have an amazing partnership with that company, and we are seeking to replicate it with others. The positivity in respect of the way the company has embraced inclusion and people with disability in its services has far surpassed anything we could have imagined. This is one of several partnerships we are working on. Again, there is room for us all to come together and to work with employers and upskill them in this regard. Perhaps we could be an organisation providing disability awareness and inclusion practice awareness in conjunction with Skillnet Ireland and other organisations to get this flow going across the different areas.