HUGE SWATHES of the Irish workforce have been left behind in the rush to embrace the so-called smart economy, a seminar on adult literacy and education has heard.
Director of the National Adult Literacy Agency Inez Bailey said yesterday that the Government’s focus on creating a high-end economy had left thousands of low-skilled workers with little or no prospects of a job.
Ms Bailey was addressing a policy seminar in Dublin’s Royal Irish Academy to coincide with national adult literacy week.
She said 50 per cent of under-25s with low-level qualifications were now unemployed.
“However, the kinds of jobs we’re creating and sustaining in Ireland are all high-skilled.”
She said adults with basic literacy or numeracy problems were three times more likely to be unemployed here than in other industrialised countries.
“The problem is we’re losing a lot of employment that is low-skilled and manual whereas other countries have had a greater length of time to evolve out of manufacturing and low-base activities that we haven’t had,” she said.