Bosses warn of skills shortage in North

Economic expansion in the North will be held back unless urgent action is taken to solve a skills shortage, business bosses warned the Assembly today.

The CBI went before the Employment and Learning Committee to stress the need for swift action rather than more consultations or strategies.

They warned that training the right number of people in the right skills was needed if the North was to achieve the economic advance that the restoration of devolution provided it with.

Declan Billington, CBI Northern Ireland chairman, said: "We are simply not structured to grow rapidly enough. In the short term we need a rapid response to the skills shortage."

His organisation projects there will be a need for 140,000 people to fill jobs during the next 10 years, and Mr Billington said: "We need skills of the right quality and the right quantity."

Dr Ian Graham, managing director of Momentum - the trade association representing the North's information, communications and technology industry - warned the number of students emerging with engineering, science and mathematical skills was "dropping dramatically" and noted "school children are choosing softer subjects".

He told the committee: "We need to do something about it, we are running into a supply problem."

Companies were already setting up off-shore because of the availability of skills. "Several companies I have spoken to say if the skills were here today they would be recruiting today."

The North has been seeking to achieve a position as one of the ICT capitals of the world - but more workers with the right skills are needed if inward foreign investment is to be achieved, the CBI warned.

Dr Graham said more conversion courses for non-IT graduates were needed. He had been talking to Queen's University and the University of Ulster about them reinstating conversion courses.

But he said there was an image issue, IT did not have the charisma to make it attractive.

He urged: "We need a marketing campaign aimed at schoolchildren, teachers and parents. We do need to greatly increase the number of people studying IT."

In the short term, he said, he saw no problem with pulling people in from other parts of the work to fill posts so growth could continue, but there needed to be a bigger local pool of the right workers with the right skills.

The CBI said the problems were not only at graduate level but right across the board - and pressed for more to be done to promote apprenticeships in vocational skills .

Michael Graham, managing director of construction company John Graham of Dromore, told the committee his industry would need some 3,000 extra employees a year over the next five years.

Apprenticeships in disciplines needed by the construction industry were not promoted well enough in schools careers advice - especially in grammar schools which did not advocate pupils going down the vocational route, he said.

He also said that schools "seem to be focused on league tables rather than focusing on the courses that individuals need".

The message from the CBI was that there was a greater need for joined up government and the Department of Learning, Department of Education and Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to work together on the skills issue.

In a separate submission Catherine Bell, deputy secretary at DEL and her counterpart in Education, Aideen McGinley, insisted that there was now a much more joined up approach by the department.

All three met at a senior level every quarter to discuss joint action and below them officials worked together on a daily basis, they said.

Ms Bell said they were working together "to get the skills needed for tomorrow's and today's economy".

Success was being achieved, she said, in promoting the number of students engaged in a programme promoting vocational skills including science and maths.

A major review had just been started into the teaching of sciences, technology and maths.

"The idea is to come forward with a strategy before the end of the year that is for industry and not just in a vacuum. We are also engaged in a major review of careers information, advice and guidance."