Ireland needs fewer graduates and more pay for manual workers

We need to properly value and compensate low paid but very essential manual workers rather than trying to ‘educate’ them out of their financial quandary, says Dr Tom O’Connor

'Right now, the biggest skills shortages in Ireland are in manual work, most of which are neither a trade nor a degree.'

There are two big drivers of skills shortages in Ireland: The first is the imbalance within the Irish education and training system which is turning out graduates at a rate that is 41% higher than the EU average (at age 25-34), while the Government can’t reach its target of 10,000 new apprentice tradespeople per year.

Cultural snobbery towards education over manual work is a big factor here and bound up with others; the second driver, and one which has been receiving scant attention, is the failure to value and adequately pay manual occupations, which are very essential and among the most valuable in society, yet do not conform to the neat distinction between a trade or a college degree.