Ireland has experienced very significant economic growth in recent years, although this has slowed with the downturn of the global economy. The primary sectors supporting this growth have been electronics, pharmaceuticals and international, especially financial, services. Continuing growth sectors are likely to be pharmaceuticals, telecoms services and software. Electronics manufacturing, which has been a core driver in growth, is no longer expected to be so significant except at the high end.
Moving from a predominantly agricultural economy in less than three decades has had a huge impact on changing skills in Ireland. The changes in growth industries are expected to continue to drive demand for new and ever changing skills. Changing skills profiles in Ireland, with the move to a knowledge-based economy, the declining requirement for lower skills, and the need to move to higher skills, has an impact both on the country as a whole and on existing companies, as they adapt to the future.
'Mixed trends are expected in electronic hardware and systems. Lower value-added activities are likely to continue to migrate out of Ireland. However, it is expected that some areas of high-end manufacturing will continue to grow, and that manufacturing operations will continue to add business functions, and product development and other R&D work. These trends are expected to drive an increased requirement for computing and electronic engineering graduates to undertake development work, while it is anticipated that the growth in high-end manufacturing will offset the loss of low end manufacturing in terms of demand for production engineers, and well qualified maintenance technicians.'1
Global firms with a manufacturing presence in Ireland will inevitably have to adapt their contribution to the parent firm's competitiveness and strategic requirements or face the inevitable decisions of operations moving to other locations where manufacturing can be provided more cost effectively. Anticipating future decisions, Irish management know they need to offer an adaptable, higher skilled workforce to their global decision-makers. A particular challenge for most large manufacturing enterprises in Europe today is workplace training - developing high quality technical and manufacturing process skills. The apprenticeship model used in the past, which served to build crafts trades for hundreds of years, is difficult to accommodate because firms work on a clear headcount model - each person on site is expected to be a 100% performer. However, there is no question about the need for really significant initial high quality and in-depth training and continuous re-skilling. This isn't about a few hours self-learning or a couple of days in a workshop, but a commitment for many tens if not hundreds of hours of theory, knowledge building and workshop/laboratory practice.
FAS has had to recognise that the demand for traditional crafts skills in manufacturing is declining. For example, the need for skilled mechanical maintenance craftsmen is sharply falling. Their response has been to move towards multi-skilling, with the emergence of 'mechatronics' as a new trade. This type of poly-occupation, moving away from single occupations with clear demarcation between different trades to one where a skilled craftsman can move across different related applications, is also apparent in other European countries.
Two considerable challenges emerge. One is to negotiate with existing single occupation holders and their social partner representatives, and the development of one poly-occupation with an agreed training programme/apprenticeship. The other is to find ways to add new skills and support the development of more adaptive competencies among those already working in skilled single occupation trades. e-Learning is considered to be a potentially important enabler in both of these challenges.
Another challenge for FAS, as the national training and employment authority, is the competitiveness of training. Pressures on public funds, the demand for improved training processes and performance, changing occupational and skills needs and the emergence of many sources of training require FAS to demonstrate innovative, more flexible programmes and approaches that meet the needs of their clients. Companies such as Hewlett Packard (HP) are seeking to maximise their returns on training investment and particularly want flexibility, high adaptability and reduced time to performance.
...continue to HP in Ireland
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