F┴S sought to shed its image as last resort of the unemployed yesterday in a new strategy aimed at focusing its services on workers and employers.
The director general of the State training and jobs authority, Mr Rody Molloy, said it aimed to become a "continuous learning organisation".
The new strategy follows a lengthy internal review by F┴S initiated before the economic downturn began in earnest and at a time when the boom saw unemployment fall to record lows - prompting the review.
F┴S said yesterday that significant easing of economic and employment growth would "undoubtedly" continue. Citing Economic and Social Research Institute studies, the authority said employment would fall next year and would "hardly grow" in 2003.
As a result, F┴S said it would still have to provide services to redundant workers, including job placement, retraining and skills registration.
The job programmes would also continue, although the body pledged to increase the quality and standards of its schemes.
Still, the plan marks a significant change in direction for the authority, set up in 1988 when hundreds of thousands were signing on the dole due to recession.
At a presentation yesterday, the Tβnaiste Ms Harney said the authority would place less emphasis on community employment schemes and concentrate instead on "upskilling" the workforce.
The reorganisation was necessary, Ms Harney said, because unskilled jobs were more likely to be placed in low-wage economies such as east and central Europe, Morocco and China.
F┴S undertook in the strategy to place "significant emphasis" on services to employers and workers, placing greater focus on labour mobility and flexibility.
The body's chairman, Mr Brian Geoghegan, described this as a fundamental change. Mr Geoghegan is a director of IBEC and his appointment last year was seen as an indication of the changing focus within F┴S.
The authority aims to develop a standards-based apprenticeship programme, with further educational options for craft workers, and to promote employment through greater mobilisation of labour supply from all available sources.
Record jobs growth in the late 1990s saw F┴S embark on a programme to recruit foreign workers into the State, but that initiative, JobsIreland, has been mothballed.
The authority warned yesterday that certain professional workers were still needed, despite the downturn.
It said a shortage of civil engineers and project managers was such that large infrastructure projects in the National Development Plan may be delayed.
The strategy document said the medium-term outlook for the economy was positive, so concerns about labour shortages and the need to increase the quantity and quality of workers "remain important".
It added: "Given the present uncertainty, there will be a need for on-going review and an ability to respond quickly to changed circumstances as they arise."
