Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 15 December 2020
126. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the current status of a skills audit by the IDA for County Laois; the results of same; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42948/20]
View answerThe Midlands Regional Team of the IDA works closely with a variety of stakeholders to ensure that client companies from across the region have access to an appropriately skilled talent pool.
IDA Ireland also collaborates with the Midlands Regional Skills Manager, Education and Training Boards (ETB’s), Athlone Institute of Technology, Carlow Institute of Technology, Solas, Irish Manufacturing Research (IMR), amongst other entities, to ensure that the appropriate courses are always available to staff in the region looking to re-train and/or up-skill. For example, IDA Ireland has worked closely with Laois Offaly ETB, Grow Remote and Solas to launch two courses aimed at improving the skillsets of remote workers across Ireland. These courses have proven to be very popular since their launch earlier this year.
Regional Cleanroom Project is a new training centre in Tullamore established in October 2019 by Laois and Offaly ETB (LOETB). Catering to biopharma and med-tech sectors, the fully functional clean room areas (class 8) will be used to provide up-skilling / training in a realistic GMP simulated manufacturing environment. The facility can build bespoke training solutions at Level 5 and 6, encouraging new entrants into the sector.
IDA Ireland has welcomed the recent application by Athlone IT and Limerick IT to form a Technological University. The new technological university aims to connect knowledge creation with industry partnerships to grow and support collaboration. AIT has also benefited from funding for a new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) building, announced as part of the Department of Education and Skills €200 million investment in Institutes of Technology. This building will create capacity for an additional 1,000 STEM students, enabling AIT to provide for increased student demand on programmes in pharma, biopharma, microbiology, sport and health science and design, innovation and technology.
In addition, the IDA Midlands Regional Manager has sat on the Midlands Region Transition Team (MRTT) since its inception following the announcement of Bord na Mona’s strategy to transition from ‘Brown to ‘Green’. Under a new framework adopted by the Just Transition Commissioner, Kieran Mulvey, four new Working Groups have now been established under the MRTT. IDA Ireland is represented on Working Group 2 – Employment Generation by the Regional Managers of both the Midlands and West Regions. One of the objectives under this WG is to progress Future Employment & Skills Development.
The IDA has collaborated on and supported several surveys for the Midlands Region, such as the Laois Town Profile, the Midlands Skills Survey and the Laois Commuter Survey.
The IDA Midlands Regional Manager sits on the Steering Committee of the Midlands REP Advanced Manufacturing Plan team, together with key stakeholders from industry across the Region. A draft plan is to be issued shortly that will set out a shared vision for developing advanced manufacturing across the Region over the coming years.
IDA Ireland also supports the Midlands Lean Network. This collaborative network facilitates peer companies to meet and discuss various challenges and opportunities that present themselves, including the re-training and up-skilling of staff to work with the latest technologies.
