Northern Ireland

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The changing landscape in Northern Ireland has shifted employer needs towards a workforce that is competent at a managerial level. Project management, team working, partnership building and negotiation skills are high in demand as many businesses seek to modernise to take advantage of lucrative new contracts that have come to the province.

Essential Skills

There is still the need to improve the most crucial skills of all – reading, writing and maths – called “Essential Skills” in Northern Ireland. A third of the working population has poor levels of such skills and it is estimated to cost employers thousands of pounds every year.

Asset Skills NI has been instrumental in ensuring schemes are up and running to try and tackle these issues.

We established an Essential Skills project for cleaners using our skills “Champion” or “Ambassador” programme. Employers allowed their staff one day off each week to attend Belfast Metropolitan University to undergo the training and the learners then brought their knowledge back to the workplace to share with colleagues.

A changing workforce

Other shifts in workforce trends have included the increase in migrant workers. Integrating these groups is now a key issue for employers and demand is growing for more language training and essential skills programmes.

The Labour Market Research we produced on Northern Ireland’s Facilities Management industry helped steer our actions to improve skills in this area. The re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Assembly in March 2007 and its ministerial executive provided us with an opportunity to influence local ministers and decision makers.

We have had a number of successful meetings on moving the Northern Ireland skills agenda forward.

New policies including the Housing Order 2003 and the Disability Codes of Practice, and initiatives like the Decent Homes and Efficiency Agenda, have created challenges for the housing sector and led to new training requirements. Customer service and management & leadership issues, often cited as problems, have been addressed through our “Supporting People Management & Leadership” programme.

Northern Ireland Boards

We have a main Asset Skills Board in Northern Ireland which steers all our actions with employers. 

This board has been sub-divided into two focus sub-groups - Housing/Property and FM/Cleaning – bringing together industry specialists to focus on specific topics.

Our plans for the future include developing senior level skills programmes, still focusing on the areas of greatest need, like housing.

We will seek to promote new standards of quality and efficiency using a bespoke training programme, developed with Belfast Metropolitan College. And we will continue developing partnerships to address skills deficiencies in the cleaning and facilities management sectors and build relationships with existing and new employers.

Our future development must be grounded in an awareness of the needs of employers and the often sensitive nature of those needs. We will continue to address the skills requirements of other sectors at all levels - from cleaners to chief executives.