Skills Strategy
The Strategy
Fingal County Council worked with local stakeholders to identify key sectors and potential skill shortages that might develop in Fingal and seek opportunities to address these skills shortages working in partnerships with industry and the education sector. The key sectors identified in Fingal are: Commerce and Trade, Professional Services, Manufacturing and Pharma, Transport and Logistics, Agri Food and Construction.
The Fingal Skills Strategy sets out recommendations to be carried out by both public and private sector partners. As with the entire spectrum of economic activity across the country, Covid 19 has been a disruptor to the implementation of the strategy. However - in 2021, the Skills Strategy Implementation Group convened to review developments in key sectors and drive activities to facilitate skills development and awareness of opportunities to enhance skills and training around the county.
Download the Fingal Skills Strategy here.
Fingal Skills Strategy Implementation Group
The Fingal Skills Strategy Implementation Group is co-chaired by Aiden Owens as Education Co-Chair from DDLETB and Frank Kilbride as Industry Co-Chair from Aramex and draws its members from education and training bodies involved in provision for the Fingal region as well as prominent employers from industry sectors included in the Skills Strategy. Organisations include the DDLETB, Fingal Chamber Skillnet, Dublin Regional Skills Forum (DRSF) and nearby third level colleges. Speaking on the Fingal Skills Strategy, Aiden Owens and Frank Kilbride said:
I welcome the Fingal Skills Strategy Information Hub as a valuable tool in signposting opportunities for both employers and the broad workforce in Fingal to access information about relevant training and education.
This skills hub demonstrates that the council is listening to employers and those seeking new skills, and taking action to raise awareness of what is available from the wide range of training providers in the county and nearby regions.
The development of this hub is a recommendation within the Fingal Skills Strategy and it is very positive to see progress is being made by the council and stakeholders in the implementation of the strategy's recommendations.
This also furthers the goal to make Fingal a great place to live, work and do business, and I look forward to seeing how it promotes skills development within the county.
Aiden Owens (Education Co-Chair)
The Fingal Skills Strategy has been a collaborative process with stakeholders from the Council, education, training and business coming together to identify and address challenges in Fingal. The Group’s success in implementing the recommendations of the first Strategy has built strong working relationships between stakeholders, allowing the advancement of objectives together in a way that would not be possible by any one stakeholder alone.
The new Strategy builds on that success and sets an ambitious shared vision for the future of skills development in Fingal, to ensure that Fingal has a skilled workforce to meet the demands of industry and business today and also anticipates the challenges of tomorrow. I look forward to continuing to work with our stakeholders to achieve our shared vision for Fingal and would like to take this opportunity to thank all the stakeholders for their input and for their commitment to and support of the Fingal Skills Strategy.
Frank Kilbride (Industry Co-Chair)
My journey with the Fingal Skills Strategy began through an introduction from the previous Chair, Siobhan Kinsella, who assured me that our involvement would be a worthwhile investment. As a business we try to prioritise meaningful projects and dedicating time and energy to the Fingal Skills Strategy has indeed proven to be exactly that. This initiative has provided a fantastic opportunity to support the future of our business, our employees, and the broader sector through collaboration with education and training providers, who have shown a strong commitment to preparing students for the workforce
Some of the organisations participating in the Fingal Skills Strategy:
