Major report launched examining Job Skill requirements for NI

Minister for Employment and Learning, Dr Sean Farren, has launched a major report examining Job Skills requirements for Northern Ireland.

The Report seeks to establish the skills needs of the Northern Ireland economy, examine current education and training provision and make recommendations for improvement.

Welcoming the Report, Minister Farren, said: "I wish to thank the NI Skills Task Force for their efforts in producing this informative and thought provoking document. The global events of the last few weeks have had a serious impact on our local economy. However, we need to look to the longer term and the availability of a highly skilled workforce remains critical to our future success."

Chairman of the Northern Ireland Skills Task Force, Mr Bill McGinnis, said: "The Report incorporates much of the gold standard research work on priority skill areas commissioned by the Skills Task Force and draws upon the wide range of experience and expertise available from Task Force members. I hope it will stimulate debate in the wider community and generate new ideas and approaches to tackling present and future skills issues."

The Northern Ireland Skills Task Force was established In February 1999 to advise the then Training & Employment Agency (T&EA) and the then Department of Education for Northern Ireland (DENI) on issues relating to the supply of, and demand for, skills in the Northern Ireland Labour Market.

The Task Force draws on a wide range of experience and expertise available from outside government, and is made up of industrialists, educationalists and trades union representatives. (CD)