Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Talent development remains vital for our workforce. One of my core objectives is strengthening our skills ecosystem to ensure it has the agility and flexibility to adapt to changing priorities in the skills and workforce development landscape - including increasingly rapid, technologically driven changes in the world of work. These changes place a premium on supporting individuals and companies to make this transition.

Bodies such as SOLAS's Skills and Labour Market Research Unit and the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment have a key role in assessing and forecasting for the skills and talent needs in an economy being transformed by digitisation and the decarbonisation imperative.

The steps I have taken to confirm and reinforce the Skillnet Ireland mandate further support our goals to enhance workforce development in SMEs across the skills ecosystem. However in this space there is always a need to do more, and so in this week's Budget I announced the start of a new scheme to incentivise SMEs to participate in lifelong learning. This pilot will help employers with the cost of upskilling and reskilling staff.

This in addition to the raft of initiatives across our FET and HE ecosystem: Skills to Compete, Springboard+, and eCollege, as well as ongoing work in relation to micro-credentials, Recognition of Prior Learning and on increasing the navigability of our offering, so that enterprise and individuals can see a clear pathway to gaining the skills that they need to thrive.