Fás, ESRI report expects skills levels to rise

Highly skilled professionals will become more common in the workplace in the next five years, driven by strong employment growth in the services industries, a report published by Fás and the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) has found.

Almost one in four workers will be in professional or associate professional roles by 2012, up from one in five workers in 2005 and one in six workers in 1999.

ESRI economist Dr Pete Lunn, one of the authors of the report, said this "skills gradient" was striking and reflected employment growth in business, financial and legal occupations, which tend to require its employees to have high-level qualifications.

The business, financial and legal professions are expected to expand the most, with numbers increasing by almost 50 per cent between 2005 and 2012. The majority of these professionals will be women.

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin said the report proved the need to stay committed to implementing the National Skills Strategy and the Strategy for Science, Innovation and Technology.

Eight Government departments are working on a strategic implementation plan for increasing the number of PhD graduates to 1,000 a year and doubling the number of post-graduates between now and 2013, with areas such as science, biotechnology, IT and engineering expected to be among the areas where so-called "fourth level" graduates are most in demand.

Science and engineering is the main professional area that Fás and the ESRI are not predicting any increase in female participation.

Roger Fox, director of planning and research at Fás, said the forecasts bore out the need for a continued emphasis on science and technology in education and training.

In less skilled occupations, much slower employment growth is predicted than has been seen in recent times. Employment levels in agriculture will drop by about 17 per cent, while if there is low economic growth, there will be a 4 per cent decline in unskilled manual jobs. The ESRI studied how the employment market might look in 2012 under two scenarios - a favourable and a poor economic climate. In both scenarios, it found the number of professionals would grow sharply.

Under the low growth scenario, the number of health professionals was not expected to grow as strongly due to anticipated pressure on public finances.