Minister briefed by regional skills forum

REPRESENTATIVES from the recently-established South East Regional Skills Forum (SERSF) have held their first meeting with Minister of State with responsibility for Training and Skills, John Halligan.

The event, at Lyrath Estate Hotel in Kilkenny, provided an opportunity for the SERSF to brief the Minister on the objectives of the Forum and its future plans for the development of the region. The SERSF is one of nine skills fora supported and funded by the Department of Education and Skills.

The Regional Skills Fora have been established as part of the Government’s new architecture under the new National Skills Strategy which sets out the Government’s approach to identifying and meeting the skills needs of industry up to 2025.

The SERSF, which covers Wexford, Carlow, Kilkenny, South Tipperary, Waterford City and Waterford County comprises representative from IT Carlow, Waterford IT, Tipperary ETB, Waterford/Wexford ETB, Kilkenny/Carlow ETB, Skillnets, LIT Tipperary. IDA, Enterprise Ireland, Waterford Chamber of Commerce, Local Enterprise Offices, IBEC, Wexford Chamber of Commerce, and Unum Ireland.

The SERSF provides an opportunity for local employers and the regional education and training providers to work together to meet the skills needs of their regions. The Forum has already started to identify the current and emerging skills needs in the south east. Whilst the Forum is concentrating initially on six sectoral areas in which it will identify skills needs and ensure timely training and education provision for the sectors which are: engineering; pharma; agri- food; business services/IT; design creation and tourism, the needs of other sectors will be supported where there has been an identified and definite skills deficit.