Economic prosperity is an essential ingredient for a real and sustainable peace in Northern Ireland. Successful western economies are underpinned by a working age population with skills and knowledge at all levels of attainment.
Northern Ireland once had a vocational training and skills programme that was the envy of Europe. Statutory training boards covered all major sectors of industry and Government Training Centres (GTCs) provided excellence in training for apprenticeship skills. This successful training system was demolished and replaced by voluntary arrangements.
However, the Government has now developed with employers, an alternative: the UK-wide Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) and local Sector Skills Councils. Whilst this is a welcome move it does not completely fill the gap, as employers are recruiting eastern European skilled labour to meet manpower shortages.
The Government’s recent skills training programme – Job Skills – was described as one of the worst initiatives the Public Accounts Committee had ever examined. The poor ethos, delivery and standards of this £500 million programme must never be repeated.
Embedded within Job Skills was the programme of training for Modern Apprentices. The scheme did few favours for our brightest young people who wanted professional careers as engineers, electricians or plumbers. Many left the programme without qualifying. It is essential the replacement scheme offers those who want “to serve their time”, high quality training in real jobs not just in training establishments.
The Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) in their Skills Strategy for Northern Ireland: A Programme for Implementation has identified how it will take forward the vision and strategy in partnership with employers.
DEL in putting into operation their skills strategy must approach it as – a demand driven not a supply driven strategy - with employers’ needs taking precedence. Such a partnership ethos is necessary for the full influence of the DEL Strategy to be realised. This would have a dramatic impact in a very specific way.
In Northern Ireland we have many excellent schools; we have two world-class universities, the Queen’s University and University of Ulster.
It is essential to develop embryonic associations between the research centres of both universities and industry. This will provide opportunities to foster the creation of more new incubation companies working at leading edge projects for world markets and would also allow the release of talented university staff with entrepreneurial skills. We need to find ways; we must provide encouragement and offer appropriate incentives to allow the brightest and best to set up and exploit the fruits of their R&D outcomes. The economy needs a business culture that is infused by the spirit of innovation, put simply we need more risk takers, we need more entrepreneurship. Provided stringent but fair, assessment criteria has been established, then failure of some of these entrepreneurial initiatives must not be perceived as disaster.
It is interesting that the EU is proposing the creation of an increasing entrepreneurial culture by placing entrepreneurship within the school curriculum. Education has a role in enhancing and in promoting a business spirit thereby helping our young people to be more creative and self-confident. In European secondary schools around 20% of participants in mini-company activities actually go on to create their own company after completing their studies. The skills needed for innovation and enterprise need to be better understood and embedded in our training and education systems.
Northern Ireland’s knowledge-based economy needs to grow so that any further blows to our traditional industries are felt to a lesser degree than might otherwise be the case. We must generate and fashion the conditions in which wealth creators can prosper and not underpin one where entrepreneurial spirit is stifled.
For over a century Northern Ireland businessmen have had the vision, skills and leadership to create world-class companies in a variety of industries – textiles, engineering, pharmaceuticals. These are still the qualities and skills required to create initiatives that in the “right environment” can bring prosperity and underpin peace.
