Forfás calls for workforce upskill

FORFÁS, the Government’s chief adviser on industrial strategy, warns that up to 500,000 in the workforce need better skills if the economy is to continue to succeed.

“Investment in our people and in our education system will be essential to Ireland’s growth,” said Forfás chief executive, Martin Cronin at the launch of the agency’s 2006 annual report yesterday. On bridging the education gap, Mr Cronin noted this deficit had been highlighted by the Forfás National Skills Council.

That deficit needs to be tackled without delay, he said. Of the two million plus now working in the economy 1.43 million of them will still be working in 2020, he said.

By then the Irish labour market could be unrecognisable from where it is today.

“We may be doing different jobs, we may be working in different sectors, and today’s junior infants, who will be doing their leaving certificate in 2020, may have career choices very different from those of today’s leaving cert students,” he said.

Forfás said upskilling in the jobs place resulting in a better educated and higher skilled workforce, was vital to our future success.

“We must ensure that we do not have too many people with lower level skills who will not be able to access employment opportunities and too few people with high level skills to avail of the opportunities available to them,” he said.

The challenge is to ensure “our skills continue to be one of our key competitive advantages, and it is a formidable challenge”, Mr Cronin added.

Last year, the numbers employed by State assisted companies from domestic to multinational stood at 341,281 against 292,745 in 1997.

Over the same 10-year period, the number of part-time and temporary workers held steady at 36,000. It said last year the spend on vital research and development (R&D) rose 14.3%.

As a result R&D spend as a percentage of gross national product has gone from 1.32% to 1.56% in 2006, which is still below the 1.77% for the EU average and further behind the 2.26% for the economies that make up the OECD area.

The report also highlights that 52.2% of Irish firms were ranked as innovative in an EU sample survey.

Minister for Innovation Policy, Michael Ahern said: “Our target is to more than double company expenditure on R&D by 2013.”

The Government was supportive of higher spending on research and recently introduced improvements to the R&D tax credit scheme for continuing progress, he said.