Government to set up committee to oversee national skills strategy

The Government is to establish an interdepartmental committee shortly to pave the way for the upskilling of an estimated 500,000 people, Minister of State for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Michael Ahern told the Dáil.

The committee, he said, would approve an implementation plan and oversee progress on the national skills strategy. He said the level of upskilling laid out in the strategy was very ambitious.

"To achieve this target, and realise the vision contained in the national skills strategy, will require an integrated approach - led jointly by my department and the Department of Education - that will successfully involve all of the key agencies in the education and training sectors," he said.

Mr Ahern said the expert group on skills needs had been charged with reporting annually on the progress in implementing the strategy. It had also been asked to examine the potential of a number of innovative measures to incentivise employers and employees to engage more fully in education and training.

"The measures under review include paid learning leave, individual learning accounts for employees and brokerage services to help firms identify training needs and source suitable training. The expert group's findings in these areas will be considered in the context of developing the implementation plan of the national skills strategy."

Mr Ahern said this year, his department had invested €77 million in training those in employment, in addition to the amount invested in the apprenticeship systems. It represented an increase of €7 million on the 2007 figure and would be used to continue to deliver training to those in employment, with a particular focus on the low skilled in accordance with the national skills strategy's objectives.

Fine Gael spokesman Leo Varadkar said there was no need to argue about the need for upskilling. "Many of the jobs that were lost in recent times were low skilled in nature," he said.