Limerick Chamber makes submission to the Department of Education and Skills

1 December 2016:  Limerick Chamber has made a submission to the Department of Education and Skills on the development of a new National Skills Strategy to represent the challenges and concerns faced by its members and businesses across the wider mid-West region.

Speaking about their submission, Director of Policy Dr. Órlaith Borthwick said, “Talent is the key differentiator for our members at the moment. Limerick Chamber is focused on ensuring that Limerick and the Mid-West region remains a globally competitive and attractive location in which to do business. It is crucial that the right people are available and suitably skilled to deliver for our members.

“The successful partnership between industry and the higher education institutions at both UL and LIT is resulting not only in talent acquisition but also job creation. Frameworks such as the Limerick for IT initiative should be supported by the department as businesses seek to deliver economic growth – not just for the Limerick region – but for Ireland.

“The recognition of prior learning is a key aspect of Ireland’s National Skills Strategy that needs to be reviewed. While the awarding of grades play a role in knowledge acquisition, companies also benefit from contextualist and multiple intelligences attributes which align to a person’s ability to solve problems, previous life experience and ability to adapt. A framework which incorporates these attributes needs to be included as part of this review” commented Dr. Borthwick.

“Sufficient supports also need to be put in place to allow SMEs to upskill staff. Evidence from our members suggests that in many instances, the loss of productivity in releasing staff members for training constrains their ability to avail of opportunities. Government initiatives – particularly the Skillnet network which provides subsidised training for employees – need to be enhanced as the economy returns to growth” concluded Dr. Borthwick.

A full copy of Limerick Chamber’s submission is available here or from the Chamber’s website at www.limerickchamber.ie

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