Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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124. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if his Department monitors the number of persons entering various college courses or apprenticeships in order to evaluate potential future labour surges or shortages in certain sectors. [61736/22]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, along with its enterprise agencies, works closely with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to ensure the availability across the economy of relevant talent and skills, which are key enablers of enterprise productivity and innovation. The Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is the lead Department for skills policy in the Irish context, which is framed by Ireland’s National Skills Strategy 2025, published in 2016.

Under the overarching framework of the National Skills Strategy, the Government operates a responsive National Skills Architecture, which aims to ensure that education and training provision is optimally aligned with identified skills needs across the economy. My Department contributes to this responsive architecture by hosting the Secretariat to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN).

The EGFSN is the independent, non-statutory body that advises the Government on projected skills requirements across the Irish economy and makes recommendations on how existing education and training systems and delivery mechanisms, as well as other sources of skills supply, can be improved.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, as well as its enterprise agencies, Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland, are members of the group, along with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, the Higher Education Authority, SOLAS, and representation from the business and trade union communities.

The EGFSN Secretariat based in my Department provides research and analysis support to the Group’s sectoral and thematic research studies, which are funded through the National Training Fund, and which help inform the work of the National Skills Council, which advises on the prioritisation of identified skills needs and the allocation of resources across the education and training system to address these needs.

In recent years the EGFSN has undertaken studies on medium to longer term skills needs in Artificial Intelligence, High Level ICT, Digital Transformation, Construction, Energy Efficient Retrofit, Renewable Energy, Electric Vehicle Deployment, SME Management Capability, Design Thinking and Logistics and Supply Chain Management. In the coming year it will also be publishing studies on the future skills needs of Biopharma and International Financial Services.

In the majority of its studies the EGFSN engages in forecasting the medium to longer term demand for skills at occupational level. Importantly, it also examines participation in associated education and training programmes, in order to identify the baseline supply of skills, the scale of any supply-demand gap that is forecast to emerge, and to make recommendations on how potential skills gaps can be addressed.

Through this analysis the work of the EGFSN serves to inform skills planning across Government and the education and training system. EGFSN analysis forms part of the evidence base for the competitive funding calls under National Training Fund supported programmes, which incentivise education and training providers to develop or expand provision in areas of identified skills needs. The Group’s work is also used to inform the review of Ireland’s Employment Permit eligibility lists, in order to facilitate the entry of appropriately skilled non-EEA nationals to fill skills and/or labour shortages in the State.