An e-business skills partnership comprising several state organisations in consultation with the third level sector and business should be developed to deal with the growing skills shortage in the Republic, a new report has said.

This was one of several key recommendations made by the expert group on future skills needs as part of a strategy to address a fast-increasing job vacancy rate in the Republic which rose to 6.5 per cent last year - up from 5.8 per cent in 1998.

The expert group presented two reports yesterday on e-business and in-company training which found that employers' increasing difficulties in finding people with the right skills were threatening industry.

The e-business report recommends establishing a partnership between Forfas, the Department of Education and Science and the Higher Educational Authority to promote the development of third level e-business education.

This partnership would promote the development of third level e-business education and suggest changes in current business school programmes which tend to have limited IT and multimedia content.

The second report highlighted a dramatic increase in in-company training with the percentage of payroll spent on this rising to 3 per cent from 1.5 per cent in 1993. "While companies in the past may have seen training as a cost, they now see it as a key part of the mix of activities crucial to producing profits," said Mr David Lowe, from Goodbody Stockbrokers, the report's author.

However, the report highlighted several constraints such as the cost of training, the time barrier - where companies find it difficult to give employees time off to train - and the availability of suitable training.

The report recommended an awareness campaign by FAS and Enterprise Ireland.