Ireland – 15th May, 2008 – The skills challenge facing the Irish economy was the subject of a major seminar organised jointly by the National College of Ireland (NCI) and the National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP), and held in Dublin on May 15.

The ‘Learning at Work’ seminar was chaired by NCPP director Lucy Fallon-Byrne and was addressed by Minister for Lifelong Learning Seán Haughey, Leo Casey of the Centre for Research and Innovation in Learning and Teaching and Prof Chip Bruce, National College of Ireland.

Four national initiatives, designed to promote and encourage learning at work, were showcased also at the seminar, providing the 100-plus delegates with real-life examples of innovative responses to the future skills challenge.

Among the issues discussed at the seminar were:

• The role of workplace learning in driving and growing the Irish economy;
• The opportunities for, and obstacles to, workplace learning that exist in Ireland today;
• Effective ways of engaging employers and employees to ensure Ireland is equipped for the future skills challenge.

National College of Ireland president Paul Mooney said the message was simple:

“For Ireland Inc. to succeed, the barriers to workplace learning must be identified and systematically removed. To survive and prosper in a tougher global environment, we need to collectively up our game to out-think the competition.

“The highest performing companies of the future are the ones that are becoming engaged in workplace learning initiatives today. The time is now and there is zero room for complacency on this. The future is decided by those who sense change and actually start to do something to respond to this. For everyone else, the time bomb is ticking.”

A new DVD was launched by Minister Haughey. Produced by NCPP, the DVD profiles the practical experiences of five Irish public and private-sector organisations that have recognised and embraced workplace learning as an enabler of change. Their stories illustrate the value of promoting human talent and creativity in the workplace, and make a powerful business case for lifelong learning and workplace training and development.  Upskilling is now a necessity.

Copies of the DVD are available (free of charge) on request from the National Centre for Partnership and Performance.  Simply drop an email to Conor (conor@ncpp.ie) with your contact details, and he’ll post them out to you as soon as possible.

Source: Education MATTERS

Ireland – 25th June 2008 – Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade & Employment Mary Coughlan TD, launched two new FÁS initiatives:

• Training of Workers with Lower Levels of Qualification
• SME Management Development

Ireland’s future economic prosperity will depend on the development of the skills of our workforce. We must continually upgrade the skills of those at work. It is through this process of constantly upskilling our workers that Irish companies will be able to secure a long term competitive advantage.

The SME Management Development initiative is targeted on the need for businesses to also develop the skills of their workforce and therefore enhance productivity and competitiveness. The training programmes are being constructed in such a way that the current and prospective, growth-related, needs of SMEs in Ireland are kept fully up to-date.

Speaking at the launch of the FÁS initiatives the Tanaiste said “In recent years, the Government has significantly increased funding through FÁS for the training and up skilling of persons in employment. This reflects our commitment to improving national competitiveness through training and development. These new FÁS initiatives, which over the next two years will deliver training and development to over 11,500 employed people, collectively represent a total investment of €19 million in the development of our workforce”.

The Tanaiste added “Experience has shown that well-trained managers, who realise the benefits of up-skilling for themselves, are also more likely to recognise the value of across-the-board training for other levels of the workforce.

This in turn facilitates and drives training for workers with lower qualifications. Therefore the suites of courses being launched today are in fact complementary to each other.

The initiatives being launched represent a major step forward in implementing Government policy in this regard, with the objective of ensuring that we have the best educated and most highly trained workforce possible in Ireland going forward”.

FÁS Director General Rody Molloy emphasised “It is those people at the lower end of the labour market who are now the most vulnerable to competition from low cost economies. It is their jobs, which can be most easily replicated. Many of these workers have low levels of skills and educational attainments. This has got to change. In future the key to long-term employment will be through a process of lifelong learning, where the skills of Irish workers, both of jobseekers and those already in employment, will undergo continuous upgrading throughout their careers and not just before they enter the workforce”

Source: FAS Press Release