Minister highlights need to improve our skills

19 June 2007

Minister for Employment and Learning, Sir Reg Empey, today opened the Essential Skills Employer Awareness Conference hosted by Amicus the Union, and the Engineering Training Council.  

The Minister spoke about the challenge of helping up to 250,000 adults in Northern Ireland improve their Essential Skills of literacy and numeracy which are the building blocks for progression to the much-needed higher level skills our economy needs.  He said: “Currently a quarter of adults in Northern Ireland have literacy and numeracy problems, which is unacceptable.  Since the launch of my department’s Essential Skills Strategy in 2002, over 35,000 people have participated in courses and we will be encouraging more to do so in the coming year.

“Our future depends on our ability to compete economically.  We need a workforce that is innovative, enterprising and skilled so that we can compete effectively in highly demanding international markets.”

He went on to stress the importance of employers, Government, trade unions and individuals each playing their part in ensuring that the Northern Ireland workforce has the skills required to utilise fully the opportunities presented by increased investment and the expansion of local businesses.  

The Minister concluded: “Our challenge is to improve the skills levels of those people currently in employment.  Approximately 70% of those in the workforce now will still be there in 2020, so we need to focus our attention on training those in the workforce and those about to join.  We will work with employers, unions, Sector Skills Councils and the Skills for Business Network to articulate the needs of employers across industry, now and for the future.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

  1. Media enquiries to the Department for Employment and Learning Press Office on 028 9025 7872.