Forum Welcomes New Members & Meets Ministers Harris & Collins

The South-West Regional Skills Forum is delighted to welcome its new industry members: Derry Sheehan, Avonmore Electrical; Barbara O'Gorman, Boston Scientific; Breda Flaherty, Dairymaster; Gillian Bergin, Dell; Jason Hawkins, Carbery Group & Kevin Buckley, Spearline to its membership.  We look forward to working with our new industry members  in building key skills aligned to employer needs across the South-West region in 2021.

In Q4, the Forum was invited to meet with Minister for Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science, Simon Harris &  Minister of State for Further & Higher Education, Niall Collins to discuss key successes of the Forum to date in addition to providing employer insights on existing and future skills needs across ICT, manufacturing, engineering, pharma/biopharma, hospitality and wider industry sectors in the South-West region.   

New Solutions Delivered by Forum Industry SME Groups

Throughout autumn, our industry SME groups & education/training partners have worked together to co-develop and finalise new upskilling programmes addressing key needs identified in 2020. Programmes developed through the work of these groups, starting this December/January are as follows:   

The Forum's Process Safety Industry SME Group met in Q4 to finalise our new upskilling programme as a response to needs identified at our pharma/biopharma skills round-table.  The programme  will include industry insights via webinars, workshops & screen casts and has secured 90% Springboard+ funding per participant.  Huge thanks are due to PM Group for chairing this group and to Industry SMEs from Astellas, Carbon, Danone, DPS Group, Gilead, Kinsale Energy, Irish Distillers, Lilly & Thermofisher for co-developing & co-delivering this programme. 

Developed with the Forum's CNC Industry Group to address upskilling needs across precision engineering and medical devices companies identified at our Q1 manufacturing round-table, this programme builds skills in CNC Programming; CAD/CAM Applications & Metrology Systems and is 50% funded by Irish Medtech Skillnets. Many thanks to Alcon, De Puy Synthes, MTD Precision; T & T Precision & Wright Medical for supporting development of this programme. Apply here.

As part of our ongoing skills needs & solutions planning work with companies, the  Forum held a skill needs scoping session with a focus group of manufacturing companies to identify specific skills requirements to support business continuity planning (operations and people) through crisis such as Covid 19.  The session captured valuable insights on navigating challenges, successes/what's worked well, & some upskilling solutions to support companies in building skills capabilities to support management and staff now and into the future.  Many thanks to our idustry collaborators for supporint this wrork. For further details, click here.  

National Skills Updates:
 

Building Skills through Budget 2021

€156 million has been allocated for the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in Budget 2021 to respond to skills & training needs arising from the Covid19 crisis.  Included in this is the extension of the €3,000 employer incentivisation scheme for new apprentices, and a suite funded upskilling initiatives to meet employer skills needs.  Click here for further information.

The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science has launched a consultation on the work of the new Department which will set out the work the Department does over the next three years, and what its guiding principles are. Employer contributions on what the Department should focus on its are welcome and can be submitted here.

Contact Us: Solutions to Your Skills Needs

Our focus is on helping South-West companies find the best solution for your skills/upskilling needs in the most accessible & affordable way.  To kick-start this process, share your headline needs with us by clicking here & we will follow up with directly on supports we can offer to help you.