World class skills, education and training can underpin Ireland’s return to export-led growth - Forfás

World class skills, education and training can underpin Ireland’s return to export-led growth - Forfás

Date: 06 March 2009

“The successful export of high value goods and services enabled by the availability of world class skills, education and training is essential to Ireland’s economic success” commented Martin Cronin, Chief Executive of Forfás, the national policy advisory body on enterprise and science, delivering the keynote address at the Institute of Guidance Counsellors Annual Conference in Kilkenny today.

Cronin continued “A flexible education and training system that fulfils the potential of the people who live and work in Ireland must be at the heart of our enterprise policy.

“The employment profile of Irish enterprise is changing.  As we move towards 2020, there will be increased emphasis on transferable, soft skills including communication, interpersonal, team working and customer service skills. Skills in creativity, design, problem solving and innovation will be essential for high productivity, and a renewed focus on language skills and cultural understanding will be necessary for Irish companies to compete successfully in EU and global markets. Engineering and computer science skills remain in demand and will continue to be very important.” 

He commented that we need to sustain investment in the education and training of our people by:

  • equipping those recently made unemployed with skills to take advantage of opportunities in other parts of the economy
  • ensuring that there are further and third level education opportunities for people who opted to enter the workforce on leaving school. 

This will ensure that we have the skilled workforce for the growth sectors of the future, including internationally traded services, food, life-sciences, software, ecommerce and other web-related services.

In conclusion he commented, “Ireland must now focus on skills for export-led sectors which will best position us for economic recovery.”


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