Minister highlights need to improve our skills

Minister for Employment and Learning, Sir Reg Empey, today opened the 2nd Annual Northern Ireland Skills Conference, entitled “Skills for Innovation”, at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.

The Minister spoke about “Success through Skills”, the Department’s Skills Strategy, and its contribution towards helping the Assembly achieve Northern Ireland’s Economic Vision.

The strategy is Northern Ireland’s first comprehensive framework for the development of skills. It aims to assist the workforce to tap into their individual potential to make the most of their talents and skills.

The Minister said: “We must use our advantages just as our competitors use theirs. We must be as innovative and competitive as they are by concentrating on those areas in which we can excel.

“Innovation is a key driver for increasing productivity in any company. As such it is vital that we teach our current workforce, and that of the future, the skills needed to encourage innovation.”

The Skills Conference coincides with Invest NI’s “Innovation Week” which aims to show companies how innovation can help to significantly increase their revenues and profitability.

In a new era of political stability, Northern Ireland is fast becoming attractive as a base for high-value-added industries such as financial services and the creative industries, which demand well-educated and highly skilled people.

The Minister stressed the importance of employers, Government and individuals playing their part in ensuring that the Northern Ireland workforce has the skills required to utilise fully the opportunities presented by increased Foreign Direct Investment and the expansion of local businesses.

The conference focused on the approach being taken in Great Britain and Ireland to improving the skills of the population as a whole and tailoring the training and courses being offered in our schools, Further Education colleges, Universities and training establishments so that they are more in line with what employers need.

The Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) and Invest NI have recently signed up to new protocol arrangements that will help strengthen their relationship. One of the aims of this increased collaboration is that the economic development agency will be able to work with their potential inward investors to establish their specific future skills needs, enabling DEL to work with schools, colleges and universities to put in place tailored training programmes to ensure there is a pool of appropriately skilled employees in place by the time the company is ready for business.

The Minister concluded "Careers advice is offered to our young people and adults through the Government and schools. We must continue to ensure that the careers advice from the department is of the highest quality and that it accurately reflects the needs of our labour market. Through better informed decision making, the Department aims to increase participation in education, training and employment.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

1. Media queries to the Department for Employment and Learning Press Office on 028 9025 7872.
2. The conference coincides with Invest NI’s “Innovation Week” which runs from the 14-18 May.
3. Speakers include Anne Heraty, ROI’s Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, Jonathan Kestenbaum, CEO, National Endowment for Science, Technology and Arts (NESTA) and Gary Anderson, former F1 designer.
4. Terry Cross (Delta Print and Packaging), Robert Ditty (Ditty Bakeries), Shauna Herron (Instuform Environmental Techniques) and Coleen Lowry (Blessingbourne Estate), facilitated by Seamus McKee, will discuss “Skills and Innovation in Action”.
5. There will be an interactive discussion with delegates and a Panel which will include Anne Heraty, Jonathan Kestenbaum, Gary Anderson, Declan Billington, DEL Permanent Secretary Aideen McGinley and representatives from universities and the further education sector.
6. “Success through Skills”, the Department for Employment and Learning’s Skills Strategy, was launched in March 2006 at the first Skills Conference by Angela Smith MP.
7. DEL Permanent Secretary Aideen McGinley and Invest NI Chief Executive Leslie Morrison signed the protocols in April 2007.