The boom times enjoyed by the Irish economy since the mid-1990s have created such demand for workers that early school leavers entering the workplace can earn a comfortable living without any qualifications.

However, the possibility of an economic downturn and the appeal of Asian economies to global manufacturers mean educating our low-skilled workers now is crucial to the success of the knowledge economy, a new report has shown.

The paper, entitled The Challenges of Workplace Learning, highlighted the benefits of offering training to young people who leave school early to go into employment. The report was based on an evaluation of the pilot programme Learning @ Work, which trained 100 low-skilled workers at 40 companies in Blanchardstown, Clondalkin, Tallaght, Shillelagh in Wicklow and The Curragh in Kildare.

There are over 100,000 people under 30 in the Irish workforce who left school without a Leaving Certificate. As a result, 30 per cent of the labour force is made up of low-skilled workers, compared to just 13 per cent in the UK, 16 per cent in Germany, and 20 per cent in Denmark, the report pointed out.

"Our skill level and take-up of lifelong learning is virtually at the same level as Poland," said Philip O'Connor, director of the Dublin Employment Pact, which published the report. "It's a disastrous situation that European competitors are ahead of us. There is no place for unskilled labour in a knowledge economy like ours."

While an extended period of economic expansion has meant many of these school leavers move directly into jobs, their lack of education and training makes it difficult for them to progress and develop a career.

"Young people leaving school early are not going into careers - they are going into jobs," Mr O'Connor said. "If, for instance, they start working at 17 at Blanchardstown Shopping Centre, they might be getting €300 a week but by the time they are in their early 20s, they are still packing shelves and their prospects are increasingly bleak."

A number of programmes have successfully targeted early school leavers, yet they have focused on those who are either unemployed or have never had a job, according to the Dublin Employment Pact. The body will meet with Fás and the Department of Education in January to discuss how the initiative can be integrated into mainstream programmes throughout the country, Mr O'Connor said.

"There have been continued attempts by the State to target this group and it just isn't working," Mr O'Connor said. "But our experience is that employers are happy to engage with this process if someone will organise it for them.

"Early school leavers often don't have the skills themselves to go looking for the resources that will give them further training and education, so you really needed to have training connected to the workplace."

Learning @ Work began life as a pilot programme in 2001 and secured funding of €560,000 from the Department of Education and Fás to run again in 2005 and 2006 at five projects in Dublin and three others in Wicklow and Kildare.

The projects included education for young stable workers in the Curragh, learning programmes for staff at Kerry Foods in Wicklow, and a project at the Tallaght Partnership for production line workers at Jacobs Fruitfield, the group that makes Jacob's Fig Rolls biscuits.

Eight Jacobs employees took part in the programme in the year through October and six completed the course, according to John Carroll, the company's HR director. With a Leaving Certificate equivalent under their belt, two have since left the business to work elsewhere, one is pursuing a diploma in supervisory management on a part-time basis, another has been promoted, while a further employee plans to study accountancy part-time when she returns from maternity leave, Mr Carroll said.

"The benefit for us, from my point of view, is that we have three people in the business who have reached a level of confidence and a degree of skill to move to jobs above the factory floor and that has cut the cost of recruiting people externally for those roles," the HR director said.

"Programmes like this create a feel-good factor in the company as they give the impression that the business is prepared to make an investment in employees beyond what we are required to do. The people who went through the programme are far more confident and more positive about their work as a result, and that rubs off on co-workers."

However, Mr Carroll doubts the programme had a tangible effect on the company's bottom line. Instead, it cost the company €20,000 to take employees off the production line for one day a week so they could attend classes in Tallaght. "This is a programme about social responsibility, really," Mr Carroll said.