The Government established the business education and training partnership in late 1997 to develop national strategies to tackle the issues of skill needs, manpower needs estimation, and education and training for business. Ireland's future competitiveness and prosperity relies on the ability of education providers to respond quickly and flexibly to the skills needs of the economy.
The expert group on future skills needs was established by the Government in late 1997 as one element of a business, education and training partnership. Its remit is to develop national strategies to tackle the issue of skills needs, manpower needs estimation, and education and training for business. The objectives of the group are to identify the skills needs of different sectors and to advise on the actions needed to address them; develop estimating techniques that will assist in anticipating the future; advise on the promotion of education and continuous training links with business at national and local levels; consider strategic issues in developing partnerships between business and the education and continuous training sectors, in meeting the skills needs of business; advise on how to improve the awareness of job seekers of career sectors where there are demands for skills, of the qualifications required, and of how they can be obtained.
The expert group operates under the aegis of Forfás and is composed of employer and employee representatives, education, training and enterprise representatives, Departments and State agencies. My Department and the Higher Education Authority are represented on the group. The expert group has produced four major reports to date, together with two further single issue reports on e-business skills needs and in-company training. The fourth report of the group was launched in October 2003. This focuses on ICT, construction, biotechnology, food processing, logistics, engineering and financial skills. The importance of soft skills for organisational success is also explored and an overview of the labour market is provided.