Further and Higher Education
Dail Éireann — 2026-05-12
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James Lawless (FF), Kildare North

That is important to hear. I have set up what I call a skills roundtable series of events where I am engaging with sectoral employers. The first event took place about six weeks ago in Grangegorman with a range of employers. I am hosting a construction skills event with the Minister, Deputy Harkin, and the Minister, Deputy Browne, later this month to hear from different construction employers such as the Construction Industry Federation, etc. I will be talking to AI and professional services employers before the summer, and then moving onto life sciences. I think pharmaceuticals will be the next up. The Deputy may have an interest in that and may wish to suggest attendees. Perhaps the company he referred to may be a suitable panellist at that. The entire point of that exercise is to engage with employers and with industry in the same room as my training agency, SOLAS, the HEA, the ETBs, etc.; to have the conversation in real time; to ask what the gaps and needs are; and to ascertain what patterns are coming through. Are they being supplied with the relevant competencies? Is the training system providing? One of the findings from the most recent event was that transversal skills need to be increased in terms of communication, analytical ability, teamwork and those sorts of universal skills, which are not as specialist as some courses might provide, but are ultimately foundational to everything.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-12/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-05-12