This year there were 1,515 Scottish Women’s Football registered players aged 12-13 and just 533 players aged 16-17.
The programme may well nurture the next crop of Scotland stars who have been inspired by a Scottish presence in the Champions League or Scotland qualifying for the World Cup.
However, for Gillies reaching girls at this crucial age is important to offer children across Scotland a way into the game.
“Success could be anything from more girls playing to that one girl playing who maybe wouldn’t have done before, that girl who has grown in confidence from being part of a team,” he said.
“Hopefully if we can retain players at that age group not only will it have an impact on our potential talent pool, but more so have an impact on the girls playing football for the rest of their lives.”
Scotland under 19 captain and Hibernian midfielder Jamie-Lee Napier, 18, recalled: “I started to take it more seriously, sometimes you need to make sacrifices when my friends wanted to go out you can’t, but that’s something you need to do to make it to a high standard.
“At a certain age you want to just play with girls, your own age and at your standards to push you on and things like this will help get more girls involved and active.”