More ‘focus and pace' needed to equip NI workforce with the rights skills, report finds

Belfast Telegraph28-05-2025

In a report 'Developing the skills for Northern Ireland's future,' the scrutiny body said that despite the development of the Skills Strategy, Northern Ireland continues to face significant shortages in key sectors.
It said it was particularly concerned about the lack of coordination between the Department for the Economy (DfE) and the Department of Education.
Daniel McCrossan, chair of the PAC and SDLP West Tyrone MLA, said: 'The DfE spends around £470m on support for skills and learning - and has more than 370 staff working in this area.
"While it provides a broad range of skills programmes, there has been little progress towards or evidence of actually meeting the Skills Strategy's goals.
'We are strongly of the view that the department's financial and staff resources could be used more effectively if there was better collaboration and a clearer focus on achieving strategic outcomes.
'Both it and the Department of Education have found effective joint working challenging for a variety of reasons – but a cohesive approach to the delivery of the Skills Strategy is essential. Departments need to do much better and work with significant pace to achieve the strategy's goals.
'The DfE also needs to make greater use of the wealth of data available to it – in order to identify and understand current and future skills needs in Northern Ireland.'
He said the focus now needed to be on reducing numbers of economically inactive people, with jobs vacancies in areas with skills shortages now five times higher than between 2015 and 2022.
'We believe DfE needs to look at collaborating proactively with other departments, engaging with those people who are facing barriers to employment - and exploring new ways of working with employers.'
Cheryl Brownlee, deputy chair of the PAC and DUP East Antrim MLA, added: 'We believe more should be done to educate students about good employment opportunities to help influence the choices they make in a positive way - to benefit themselves and the local economy.
"It's concerning to note that despite DfE providing funding of £372m to further and higher education institutions in 2023-24, to help support skills and learning, they had little influence over what types of courses were offered.
'There is a duplication of educational services between schools and further education colleges and they are actually now less collaborative and more competitive.
"It's simply unacceptable that this is something both departments are aware of but have taken no action on. This is about the best use of public money and must be addressed as soon as possible, as highlighted in our list of recommendations.
'The committee recommends that careers education and advice be reviewed to ensure that pupils are empowered to make informed choices that open up training and career opportunities aligned to the skills gaps identified.
'Members of the Northern Ireland Youth Assembly told us that most of them weren't aware of what skills were needed here. This has to change, along with better availability of information and guidance on educational pathways.'
The committee also outlined its concerns in the report about the functionality of the IT system operated by the Department of Education – and calls for greater change.
A spokesperson for the Department of Education said: 'The Department notes the publication of the PAC report and will consider the Committee's recommendations fully.'

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