Episode 135

I suppose in recent years, in fairness, Will, we have seen a lot of change from the whole area of, I suppose, not just in the Midlands but across Ireland, the whole area of automation, digitalisation, the threats of AI, the whole area of cyber security, etc.

So, I would deal with sectors, all sectors, all sizes.

But there's a common theme coming, right? Companies find it hard to get talent, hard to keep talent.

And more and more, they have to start looking internally at developing their own staff.

And I suppose that's where I work with them on the whole area of signposting them to the various education and training boards, whether it's their local university or education and training boards or a skill net.

And to look at pathways where they can develop themselves, whether it is online learning, whether it is attending a course.

But in a lot of cases, Will, the employer and the employee are time poor.

So the provision has definitely changed over the last years from online learning to recorded lectures.

And in fairness, I suppose, in the Midlands, across all our education and training providers, we have a wide range of courses that are there to address the needs that are evolving.

So whether it is in Niall's case, the whole area of engineering, ICT, AI, cyber, but we still have needs for practical skills as well, such as in our cluster group with advanced technology and manufacturing, we have still a need for welders, fabricators, CNC operatives.

So it's important, I suppose, what we're trying to do is capture the key skills that are needed and to align the education provision accordingly.

So Geraldine it's easier for an employer to find within their own workforce people who can be developed into whatever that future need is rather than going out and fishing for entirely new candidates but you as an academic you almost see the need before they do so that you have the trainers in place to deliver so how do you do that?

Yeah, what we're doing with the reshape.ie

platform is we're building an ecosystem.

So we have the training providers on one side, we have the employers on the other side, and then we have the individuals and employees.

So what we're doing with that system is we're able to see what are the demands that the employers are looking for? You know, what do the individuals have in terms of skills and what are their skills gaps? And also then we're able to inform the training providers what are the skills that are in demand look this employer here like they're looking for these particular skills do we have courses to meet these so what we're trying to do then is preempt okay look there's an awful need for this type of training but yet it's not there but also what it allows us to do is really see what skills people have across the company because sometimes you know people have worked in organizations for a long time They've also come from other organisations and they have a huge amount of skills.

So there could be, you know, skills there that the employers might not be aware of.

And, you know, there is a tool then for them to see that.

And sometimes it takes a little bit of training just to upskill into a new area.

So that's the great thing about the technology, to be able to see that and to be able to see that in real time in reports.

But when you're dealing with employers and working people, the traditional college model, as we would have known it coming out of school where you're full time in education, that doesn't work because people are too busy and they have real life demands.

So how flexible can the learning be?

It's really, really flexible.

You know, anything from if you just need a little taster and something to learn a little bit more.

There's like day long workshops.