Skillnet Ireland will invest €77 million in supporting 20,000 companies and 80,000 workers during 2022 and chief executive Paul Healy is looking to build on that in the coming years.
“This will be our highest ever level of investment and it is coming from both government and the private sector,” he says. “We are making really solid progress on the journey to achieving the objectives we set in our strategy to 2025 when we want to reach 30,000 firms by investing €110 million annually.”
The organisation is firmly focused on the future, he adds. “We’re not just thinking about today’s talent and skills needs. We are thinking about the future of work and constantly scanning the horizon to see where the next digital or technological change will come from and what it will mean for people in the workforce at present. We work very closely with industry to develop new programmes to meet the needs of the workforce of the future.”
Looking to the year ahead, he notes the resilience of the Irish economy despite the challenges presented by the pandemic. “We are seeing continued growth. Ibec has forecast a rate of 6 per cent while the ESRI puts it even higher. Unemployment has fallen rapidly and is moving towards pre-pandemic levels. We also saw the record tax take for 2021, up €11.2 billion on 2020. There are a lot of green lights on the dashboard including fundamentals like the recovery in consumer spending and increased wages. It is a very broad-based recovery. Of course, we cannot forget those consumer facing sectors like hospitality and leisure which are still feeling the pressure from the pandemic restrictions.”
Daily contact with businesses has helped Skillnet Ireland identify the five key priorities for Irish enterprise in the year ahead.
“Number one is talent,” says Healy. “Getting the right people, and the right skills as well as sourcing the right blend of skills.”
Businesses need both high tech and high touch skills, he adds. They include the hard job-related skills as well as those uniquely human skills such communication, empathy, creativity and so on. “That applies across all sectors, particularly FDI.”
The next relates to remote working and where and how people work. The return to the workplace will present challenges to organisations seeking to hold on to their best people.
After that comes digitalisation. “This applies to both big and small firms,” says Healy. “They are looking at how to implement digitalisation across the organisation. Covid catalysed this and pushed it even higher up the agenda.”
Next is the sustainability agenda. “We are seeing an increased willingness to embrace sustainability. There is growing demand from businesses to understand how they can move to low carbon operations, products, supply chains, delivery models and so on.”
Lastly, businesses want to become more productive, effective and innovative. “Small businesses in particular are looking at how they can become more efficient and productive and we are supporting managers and owners in that regard,” says Healy.
Against the backdrop of those priority areas, Healy believes the country has a lot going for it. “Our human capital is our competitive advantage and has been critical in our economic development for many years,” he says. “Now is the time to double down on that advantage, to defend it and invest in it further. 2022 marks our 23rd year of working with companies to build competitiveness through talent development. We have 73 Skillnet networks across the country driven by market need.”
The year ahead will see the organisation place a strong focus on digital skills in areas such as AI, automation, blockchain, and data science. “We are continuing to work with industry to ensure businesses stay ahead of the curve on new technologies. We are assisting small businesses on their digital journey and looking at supporting 15,000 workers on digital skills programmes.”
Skillnet Ireland’s Climate Ready initiative is helping businesses shift to more sustainable practices. A key component of the initiative is the Sustainable Leaders Programme which has been developed as part of the organisation’s Climate Ready Academy. The programme will assist businesses in understanding and embracing sustainable business practices that will contribute to achieving a carbon neutral economy.
The FDI sector is also an area of focus. “We expect to support about 1,200 companies and 12,000 workers in FDI companies this year,” says Healy. “One example is a really interesting programme called the Innovation Exchange. This is a new enterprise-led initiative that connects Irish technology solutions providers with large organisations facing digital transformation challenges, creating opportunities for expansion and commercial success by helping those ambitious Irish firms to access multinational companies’ supply chains.”
Looking to the longer term, Healy is optimistic. “New technologies may replace some jobs, but they will also unleash a huge amount of growth. The net outlook for jobs from the World Economic Forum is positive. It’s a question of how well we prepare people for the opportunities created by growth and how we help those people who are negatively impacted through upskilling and talent development.”