American Chamber of Commerce Ireland · American Chamber of Commerce Ireland: National Skills...

American Chamber of Commerce Ireland: National Skills Strategy

American Chamber of Commerce Ireland

Submission with Regard to the Formulation

of a National Skills Strategy

Department of Education and Skills

2nd December 2015


Ireland: A Global Centre for Talent

Executive Summary

Ireland needs talent to sustain and build its economy. Ultimately, if Ireland is to remain ahead of

the pack we must be positioned as the global location of choice for talent to thrive. Achieving this

will ‘future proof’ the country and its industrial base in an ever-changing business environment.

Following extensive consultation with leadership within the Chamber, this submission highlights

some key priorities for the Skills Strategy 2025 with a focus on four themes reflecting the structure

of the consultation document:

Relevant Skills: An important context for curriculum development and reform is that industry’s

demand for talent remains strong within the FDI base especially for those with science, technology,

engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills and higher order 4th level skills. Intense appetite remains

for experience in areas such as ICT, engineering, sales/customer care, business and finance at a

variety of attainment levels requiring a balanced approach. Acquiring, maintaining, and upgrading

skills will be an essential characteristic for all employees and hence a holistic skills strategy for the

country should address the recognition of learning in the workplace, raising life-long learning

participation rates and a structured approach to experiential learning across all levels of education.

Key Actions:

1. Ensure the acquisition of Digital Skills among all school leavers, those at work and across society

in general to maximise engagement with the modern economy.

2. Ensure that we retain the research community that we have successfully built in Ireland, while

attracting and developing new talented researchers and repositioning more of our PhDs into

industry.

3. Create the incentives to raise the uptake of Life Long Learning (LLL) opportunities to above the

EU average by 2025.

4. Expand the provision of work placements and accredited learning to increase the work readiness

of students/trainees and their alignment with enterprise needs.

Skills Activation: For the FDI base the retention of older cohorts of talent and ensuring that their

roles evolve as they approach retirement is a critical consideration as demographic trends put

downward pressure on labour market participation. More broadly, supporting reskilling in the

current workforce will be vital to ensure that the current talent base are enabled to remain ahead of

global shifts in skill need and to assist changes in corporate strategy.

Key Actions:

5. Develop the incentives to retain experienced senior talent in the workforce past traditional

retirement ages.

6. Encourage the delivery of flexible approaches to training, LLL and other outlets for upskilling and

reskilling of the current workforce.


Effective Use of Skills: The capacity of an organisation, the skills of its leadership and the willingness

of staff to form, implement and manage a Talent Management Strategy needs support from the

education and training system. Building eco-systems can be strengthened by encouraging regional

education-government-industry collaboration, embedding entrepreneurship into education at all

levels and establishing a society-wide awareness of the future opportunities for careers.

Key Actions:

7. Develop a national framework to support Talent Management within enterprise.

8. Support regional clusters with a systematic and structured approach to industry and education

engagement to ensure a joined-up approach to training and development needs.

9. Sustained enterprise-education engagement to encourage a culture of entrepreneurialism and

innovation within the curriculum.

10. Investment in a society-wide communications/media programme to establish a public

awareness on future career opportunities.

11. Implement a national foreign languages strategy that supports much improved levels of foreign

language provision and fluency.

Attracting & Retaining Talent: For the foreseeable future there will remain a need to fill open

positions from outside of Ireland. This is a positive for our country as a diverse globalised workforce

is one that allows for a broader range of activities in our business sectors, introduces new ideas and

approaches to work, and delivers a greater global reach for industry. Adapting our education system

to allow for a diversity of cultures, making it more accessible, recognising foreign qualifications and

supporting the availability of international education programmes for expatriate families on

assignment will assist the task of attracting talent.

Key Actions:

12. Reform the Personal Tax system focused on retaining, rewarding and attracting specialist skills

and leadership talent critical to winning investment, driving job creation and encouraging

productivity.

13. Promote Ireland’s strengths internationally, , provide a one-stop-information-shop for new

arrivals, promote a culture of outward looking talent development and reduce barriers in areas

such as the access to schooling and the supply of housing. We must ensure that our

employment permits system remains business friendly and more broadly continue to modernise

the immigration system.


Introduction

Talent is the driving force behind the success of American businesses in Ireland and what keeps

Ireland ahead of the game. For Ireland to continue to compete we must be able to develop, retain

and attract leadership and specialist talent in a highly competitive global market for skills. Ireland

needs to be top of the class – meaning a constant renewal of what makes Ireland a unique

destination for foreign direct investment: our blend of skills, business competitiveness and world

leading research and innovation.

Our members recognise that productivity drives sustainable economic development and wage

growth and is the litmus test for competitiveness. Investment in training and upskilling, alignment of

skills with labour market demand, workforce participation rates and the prevalence of engagement

with Life Long Learning are key components supporting the competitiveness of the country and its

long term ability to attract and retain investment. Ireland must build its international reputation for

the availability of talent and as a source of innovation as these factors are becoming increasingly

important in FDI decision making for high-value activities such as the growing clusters in ICT,

Pharma, Digital Content, Medical Devices, Nutritional Foods, and Financial Services.

The American Chamber strongly supports on-going efforts to boost the supply of well-qualified Irish

graduates in key sectors, alongside delivering greater employability skills to them. The Chamber is

engaged with a number of education stakeholders to address the domestic supply of skills, have

consulted on the Action Plans for Jobs, ICT Skills Action Plans, HEI-Industry Engagement Strategy,

and Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation (SSTI) 2020, as well as supporting the corporate

social responsibility (CSR) activities of our members which are overwhelmingly focused on outreach

to the education and training sector. The American Chamber expects ever more opportunities to

arise in leadership and specialist roles. Ireland has a great opportunity to develop, retain and attract

talent for those positions while developing our existing skills base to allow talent to take on the

opportunities of a global market.

Global Opportunities need Global Citizens and Global Leadership

The priority for the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland is that Ireland remains a global location

of choice for US foreign direct investment (FDI) into Europe. Ireland is a unique transatlantic

gateway; in 2014 Ireland became the largest European recipient of US FDI, and investment flows

from the US to Ireland since 2000 have been 6 times larger than those to China. Ireland’s sustained

FDI performance is attributed to Ireland’s track record of delivery, flexibility and innovation in a

secure and business friendly policy environment.

Today, over 140,000 people are directly employed in over 700 US firms in Ireland, accounting for

over 70% of all IDA supported employment. Collectively US companies have US $310bn in foreign

direct investment in Ireland, representing over 10% of all US investment in the EU. This investment

remains instrumental in helping to create and develop a world class labour force; critical in

dispersing technology and innovative capabilities across the economy; and key in expanding the

global reach of indigenous firms.

A global economic challenge facing Government, educators and enterprise is preparing the entire

workforce for the jobs of the future. For the workforce of tomorrow coming through the education

system, and those in transition, the aim is to get a productive job in the field of their choice.

Industry’s competitive setting demands decreasing the time/resources to developing competences,


while at the same time improving talent retention. With its appetite for talent with technical,

interpersonal and global acumen the talent competitiveness challenge we share with other

developed countries is focused on ways to bridge the skills gap between ‘education’ and the

‘workforce’.

The key to unlocking some of these gateways will involve how the education and training system

continuously improves its post-secondary education programmes to prepare students for their initial

introduction to work. The Chamber believes that this is best achieved by improving collaboration

between industry and higher education. The core competency of education providers is their ability

to teach, the understanding of learning theory that stands behind methodologies and modalities of

education and training delivery. Enterprise’s role is to help the education system forecast the future

world of work and profile the desired learning outcomes it expects from education and training

providers.

In the education setting opportunities to embed experiential learning into curriculum throughout

the education cycle should be encouraged, documented and valued in the overall assessment of

learners. In the organisational setting structured continuous learning opportunities should be very

evident in a manner that allow citizens to regularly add to their skill sets in a recognized way and

supporting a move to on-going ‘stackable credentials’ to achieve higher levels of attainment through

a life of learning and the recognition of (prior) learning in the workplace.

The realities of globalization, with increasing emphasis on emerging markets, present corporate

leaders face enormous challenges in developing the leaders required to run global organizations. As

multinationals transition into truly global organizations relying on changing markets for growth,

companies must shift to decentralized, collaborative decision-making. That requires developing

many leaders capable of working anywhere. To address these needs, new approaches for

developing global leaders are required, with the need to develop hundreds, even thousands, of

leaders comfortable operating in the new landscape. Global leaders must be effective in aligning

employees around the company’s mission and values, empowering people to lead, and collaborating

horizontally rather than managing vertically. Developing global leaders with collaborative skills

requires greater focus on emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and empowerment than on

traditional management skills.

This submission provides input on the three consultation themes of Developing Relevant Skills,

Activating Skills, and Effective Use of Skills and additional input on Retaining and Attracting Talent.

There are many cross-cutting aspects of this submission in respect of those themes. It is impossible

for example to separate the issue of supporting Life Long Learning from that of reskilling or how to

effectively use skills. In turn the Strategy must take a holistic and coherent view of how to

effectively deliver solutions to skills need.

Industry needs people with good ideas and the skills and knowledge to translate their skills and

knowledge to make an impact in the work place. A key strategic imperative must be to prepare

Global Citizens to play their part in the 21st Century economy.


Developing Relevant Skills

An important context for curriculum development and reform is that industry’s demand for talent

remains strong within the FDI base with intense appetites for experience in areas such as ICT,

engineering, sales/customer care, business and finance. Acquiring, maintaining, and upgrading skills

will be an essential characteristic for all employees and hence a holistic skills strategy for the country

should address the recognition of learning in the workplace, raising life-long learning participation

rates and a structured approach to experiential learning across all levels of education.

Creative thinking is a strategic advantage for Ireland. The core principle is that ideation is promoted

and the fostering of all ideas encouraged. That cultural confidence to try ideas out and not worry

about failure can be vital to the success of a business. Our future workforce must have the freedom

and ability to think creatively, avoiding group think and avoid the fear of failure that can stifle both

entrepreneurship and intrapreneurship.

Future Skills

An important context for curriculum development and reform is industry’s demand for talent with

intense appetites for experience in areas such as ICT, engineering, sales/customer care, business

and finance. The Chamber’s members are in concurrence with the findings of the Expert Group on

Future Skills Needs (EGFSN, July 2015) showing significant opportunities for:

ICT professionals/associate professionals with skills in software coding development, cloud,

databases/big data, testing, security, technical support, networking and infrastructure.

Engineering capabilities for production, process, quality, validation and product

design/development, electronic, electrical, mechanical and chemical applications.

Scientific skills in biochemistry, biotechnology, pharmacovigilance and product development.

Commercial skills for risk assessment and management, compliance, finance and accounting,

business intelligence, sales and marketing, linguistics and data analytics.

Our members regard it as a key priority that digital skills are embedded among all learners. The

success of the Digital Strategy for Schools will be critical in delivering on this priority. The

opportunity to develop an in-depth ICT course for the Leaving Certificate is one that no school

should pass up. It is vital that coding and programming skills are acquired as widely as possible.

Beyond particular subject choices our future school leavers should have begun to acquire the

analytical skills that they will need to thrive in the workplaces of the future. Cross cutting analytical

abilities will be vital no matter what subject a student might pursue whether in the physical sciences

or the social sciences. Moreover, a focus on STEM subjects and analytical abilities should not be

read as undervaluing or ignoring the importance of the creative arts within our education system.

We should aim to encourage students to be ‘T’ shaped individuals with a deep knowledge of their

specialism but in addition a broad appreciation of other fields of study and intellectual endeavour as

well as the soft skills to collaborate and flourish in team environments.

The Chamber encourages the implementation of current strategies devised by the EGFSN in areas

such as Big Data & Analytics and Manufacturing, as well as a continued focus on building on the

achievements of the ICT Skills Action Plan. A revised plan to ensure that the biopharma sector is

adequately resourced with skills as it expands and evolves would be greatly welcomed by industry.


In our RDI strategy paper, Ireland’s Innovation Pathway, the American Chamber called for the

development over the next decade of a new shared investment model for RDI that seeks to address

grand challenges, through significant flagship programmes, and which would create a new dynamic

in a global RDI market. The attraction of FDI and investment partners to specific consortia,

analogous to strategic defence or space programmes in other jurisdictions, would enable Ireland to

develop a unique strategic capability in areas such as Health Care, Education, Natural Resource

development, and/or Global Financial or Environmental Services.

This would involve the creation of an industry led ecosystem that would be clearly challenged to

achieve specific outcomes and economic impact. This approach would seed new enterprise and

start-up technology companies within, and external to, FDI companies. It has the potential to create

a vibrant foundry of new technology and solutions to address difficult challenges. Mostly, it would

prepare new generations and ensure that the future requisite skills are ever present within Ireland’s

workforce to meet the changes and challenges ahead. Crucially, we must ensure that we retain the

research community that we have successfully built in Ireland, while attracting and developing new

talented researchers and repositioning more of our PhDs into industry.

A concentration on leading human capital, the creation of intellectual value, and investment in

innovation for purpose, will propel Ireland into a leadership RDI position. A challenge-centric focus

on significant societal or economic impact – grand challenges, must be enabled through a broader

engagement of government in the development of the next iteration of RDI policy. The policy must

ensure that Ireland has the capacity to supply and attract the intellectual capacity and leadership

necessary to attract RDI investment.

Lifelong Talent Development

Future proofing our economy will require higher levels of skill attainment and the ability to flexibly

and quickly respond to changing skills needs. The Chamber believes addressing Life Long Learning

and formally recognise prior learning in the workplace have an important role in keeping Ireland

competitive by establishing a reputation as the centre of excellence for learning an development.

As economic development and technological progress continues apace acquiring, maintaining, and

upgrading skills will be an essential characteristic for all employees. Rapid evolution of business

needs, technologies and markets require greater levels of skills acquisition and a constant need to

ensure that the skills profiles of employees match the requirements of current and future skills need.

There are a number of initiatives that can be underpinned by the National Skills Strategy that would

assist in maintaining Ireland’s position as a highly innovative economy and a global location of choice

for talent.

As recognised in the consultation document, Ireland currently lags the EU average for participation

in Life Long Learning (LLL) with a participation rate of 7.3% compared to the average of 10.5%.

Furthermore the participation rate for those in employment is 6.4% compared to an EU average of

11.4%. These figures point to a systemic underutilisation in Ireland of the opportunities that exist

for LLL as well as potentially an undersupply of opportunities.

Our members are uniformly of the view that LLL is of significant value to employees and will be of

even greater value in the future as their career paths take them through a range of business

sectors with constantly evolving skills needs. The need to maintain or upgrade skills alongside

acquiring new skills and knowledge throughout their careers will be an ever present requirement.


Engagement in LLL is of benefit both to the employer and employee and contributes to job

satisfaction and productivity levels.

Investment in the future development of competence is difficult as individuals form households,

provide for their families and consider their healthcare and pension needs. The Chamber is of the

view that LLL is a strategic investment as important in a knowledge intensive era as pension

provision planning for an ageing society. Hence an economy can best evolve if the ownership for

future competence development is with the individual, supported by the infrastructure of the state

and enabled by an attractive industry and business base. Specifically, the American Chamber

recommends that Ireland explores developing a unique strategy that has three core objectives:

A policy of allowing individuals to build saving/investment funds to support their own and their

families lifetime training and development aligned to national strategic objectives as determined

by the Expert Group for Future Skills Needs.

Establishing an interim pre-employment status that supports persons in graduate or post-

graduate programs or those undergoing career change/development to gain work experience

and become work ready especially when transferring/upgrading from one skill-set to another.

A system of tax reliefs to support further education for individuals by providing specific tax

incentives for companies to increase their learning and development capacity, including the

expansion of work placement and graduate training entry points.

Consultation with our members has raised a number of suggestions for action to improve the uptake

of LLL opportunities. The key principles of an enhanced LLL approach include:

Effective Promotion: Raising the awareness and value of LLL among employees.

Affordability: Minimising the cost of provision by innovative approaches to funding and

programme delivery.

Accessibility: Greater levels of flexible course provision including distance and online learning,

blended learning, and provision of learning opportunities at more convenient locations for

learners for whom distances to college campuses are a barrier to access.

Alignment with Demand: Focus on identifying skills needs at a regional level with a view to

exploiting the partnerships arising from enhanced engagement to drive solutions in course

provision.

Delivering enhanced LLL opportunities in Ireland governed by the above principles will require a

range of actions including; better coordination of information provision on existing opportunities;

addressing the need for the regulation and certification of LLL courses and the provision of

refresher courses for upskilling.

The implementation of Collaborating for Talent and Growth, the Higher Education Authority’s

strategy for higher-education-enterprise engagement, should provide opportunities for curriculum

development for LLL courses driven by a partnership approach between higher education

institutions and employers on a regional basis. The value of LLL is not alone found in the higher

education sector and it will be essential that course provision in the further education sector is

matched to evolving skills needs.

Recognising Learning in the Workplace

Complementary to an enhanced provision of LLL opportunities our members are if the view that

there must be a considered approach to Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) to open up LLL


opportunities for those who may lack formal educational qualifications but have acquired

workplace based knowledge of relevance to the course of study.

RPL is designed to recognise learning (formal or informal) prior to enrolment in a course of study and

to give it value assisting the learner to advance on their path of study. While there have been

advances in the policy provision for RPL, including the Higher Education Authority’s inclusion of

“widening access and participation, including through the recognition of prior learning” in their

performance framework for Higher Education Institutions, the Chamber recommends continued

dialogue with stakeholders to widen its application.

Our members echo the recommendation of the ‘National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030’

(the Hunt Report) that a national framework for RPL be developed for implementation by

academic institutions. In addition, there should be a coherent cross-institutional approach to RPL by

colleges. As in relation to LLL, it will be important for awareness raising of the potential that RPL

presents for employees seeking to upgrade their skills.

Work-Ready Talent

The Chamber’s members have often observed that countries with strong dual vocational education

and training systems have the lowest youth unemployment rates (OECD 2010) and we know in the

Irish context that underemployment at the transition into the workforce can set a series of skills

mismatches and underemployment situations in train (OECD 2011).

Ensuring that work placements are more widely available to enhance work readiness will be

essential to support the employees of the future. American Chamber companies regard the issues

of provision of work place experience and work readiness as closely interlinked. There is a strong

view among our members that work readiness is boosted significantly by periods of experience in

workplace settings, particularly those with relevance to the industry new employees are entering.

Current provision of work placements for third level students is patchy, and while there have been

improvements in this regard there is a need for further expansion. This will be challenging as the

capacity of businesses to support work placements varies considerably. Regional partnerships

provide an opportunity to develop these programmes further where capacity exists.

Consultation with our members underlines a number of attributes and skills that are required for

work readiness, and which work placements and course content can assist in developing. Those

factors include:

Developing problem solving and critical thinking skills (putting theory into practice).

Acquiring soft skills (communications, interpersonal skills, teamwork, leadership).

Exposure to the professional/organisation setting (timekeeping, behaviour, culture ...etc.).

Help with career choice and enhanced employment prospects.

The acquisition of these attributes and skills can be done experientially through work placements

but also through provision of course content or modules at third level emphasising what have come

to be known as ‘generic’ or ‘21st Century’ skills. Work readiness is clearly in the interest of both the

employer and employee, but there has been a persistent theme of dissatisfaction among our

members over recent years with the work readiness levels of many of the recent cohorts of

graduates emerging from third level in Ireland. Compounding this have been mismatches for some

employers between the skills and knowledge acquired by graduates at third level and the skill and


knowledge requirements of those employers. This issue points to a deeper issue of the relevance of

course content.

The Chamber is strongly supportive of further development and funding of work based learning

opportunities between Industry/Business and Higher Education; through the support of

programmes such as the Postgraduate Programme in Professional Practice (PGPP) initiative, the

new Higher Education apprentice programmes and the expansion of work placement programmes

throughout the higher education sector. One of the key components to continued coordinated

success between the state and industry in the delivery of sustainable economic growth is the

development of relevant skills in the future workforce and key to this is the expansion and

enhancement of work-based learning opportunities. In regard to the existing workforce, enhanced

state support of upskilling and reskilling initiatives should form part of the new skills strategy. In

this respect there is an opportunity to redirect the focus of Springboard and other existing funding

mechanisms to reskilling and upskilling initiatives within industry as unemployment levels

decrease substantially.

Delivering on work readiness will require action on the following recommendations:

Ensure that work placements are of sufficient length (at least 6 months) and of a high standard.

Increase the availability of placements and courses that carry a placement as a core part of

course delivery in collaboration with employers.

Ensure relevant curriculum content in collaboration with employers.

Provide for acquisition of workplace relevant skills in course design.

Put in place mechanisms to assess graduate feedback on the workplace relevance of course

content.

Further development and funding of work based learning opportunities between

Industry/Business and Higher Education; through the support of programmes such as the

Postgraduate Programme in Professional Practice initiative.

In regard to this last action, the annual Irish Survey of Student Engagement could be employed to

elicit a deeper understanding from recent graduates on the acquisition of “job-related or work-

related knowledge skills” to inform course design.

Talent and Attainment

American Chamber member companies are among the leading employers of third level graduates in

Ireland. American companies in Ireland are among the most expertise intensive and thereby often

have a higher skill level requirement than many domestic Irish businesses. However there is a level

of variation across businesses in our membership, and there is a strong level of demand for

employees initially qualified at levels 5-6 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ).

Ensuring a balanced provision for skills at varying levels of educational attainment will be

important in ensuring that we are not ‘over-educating’ our school leavers for initial career entry

points and in addressing areas of skills mismatches. The Chamber believes there are many paths to

achieving higher education attainment – not all have to start with degree level qualifications.

Programmes like ‘FastTrack into IT’ (FIT) develops and promotes technology-based programmes at

NFQ L5/L6 and career development opportunities for job seekers to equip them to compete in an

increasingly knowledge-based labour market /economy by collaboration with government

departments, national education and training agencies, local colleges and training centres and


community development organisations – to maximise employment through addressing the skills

demands of the technology and related sectors.

Therefore within the broad cross sector profile of our membership there is a strong view that a

balance is necessary between the continued high level of attainment of third level qualifications and

qualifications at mid-levels on the NFQ framework. Beyond the level of attainment our members

also wish to see a better balance established between a theoretical understanding of a subject and

the practical application of that knowledge. The importance of apprenticeships in meeting skills

need is regarded as key for many of our members. The context of persistent, high non-progression

rates for some courses, particularly in first year, points to a need to ensure that students are

pursuing courses for which they have both the aptitude and the appetite.

Facilitating the nature of learning on the job is important. In the same way that RPL requires a

framework to guide best practice, there should be greater recognition of the value of work based

learning (WBL) and how it contributes to the skills profile of employees. American Chamber

members do not currently see a danger of a generalised ‘over education’ problem, however they are

conscious of ensuring that students are accommodated in appropriate courses to ensure that they

are qualified for job openings. In this regard there is a concern about skills mismatches, not alone as

documented earlier in this Submission between course content and what is relevant on the job, but

also more broadly in the wider populace.

As the economy becomes increasingly technologically connected, with the rapid development of the

Internet of Things, this will have implications for the level of Science, Technology, Engineering and

Mathematics (STEM) skills required outside of STEM roles. Engagement in STEM at an early age is

essential to ensure that all students throughout their educational path can engage with the concepts

and practice of STEM subjects.

Activating Skills

For the FDI base the retention of older cohorts of talent and ensuring that their roles evolve as they

approach retirement is a critical consideration as demographic trends put downward pressure on

labour market participation. More broadly, supporting reskilling in the current workforce will be vital

to ensure that the current talent base are enabled to remain ahead of global shifts in skill need and

to assist changes in corporate strategy.

Retaining older employees is of benefit to the employee, their organisation and new employees

who can profit from their mentoring

The value of experience, leadership and industry knowledge is well recognised by American

companies in Ireland. In longer established industries the question of how to facilitate the retention

of older cohorts of employees and ensuring that their roles evolve as they approach retirement is a

critical consideration. Not alone are employers seeking to ensure the retention of a lifetime of

experience with older employees but additionally they are pursuing more diverse workplaces,

including diversity of age.

Key to retaining older employees is ensuring that they are facilitated in staying current in respect of

new skills and technological platforms. A common thread in this submission is the vital importance

of LLL and this applies equally to employees approaching retirement. The pace of technological and


workplace change is unrelenting. In order to ensure that employees are comfortable remaining in

their roles in a fast changing environment it is important that they are able to upgrade their skills to

complement their experience and industry knowledge.

Many of our members envisage a key role for older employees, particularly those close to retirement

age, in mentoring new employees in their organisations. Beyond a mentoring role there are

opportunities for leading projects according to their expertise, helping to deliver training

programmes, and shifting to advisory roles within the company.

To facilitate this we recommend a number of actions:

Explore tax incentives to encourage older workers to continue in the workplace beyond

retirement age, largely in part time roles or working to flexible work schedules, and consider the

implications for pension legislation.

Explore how labour market activation schemes and/or the social welfare system can facilitate

older/retired workers taking up roles with start-up companies.

Retirement should become a gradual process .

Supporting reskilling in the current workforce will be vital to ensure that employees are enabled

to remain ahead of global shifts in skill need and to assist changes in corporate strategy

Attaining the necessary balance of skills in an organisation is a constant task. Supporting the

reskilling of staff must be a key aspect of the general approach to Life Long Learning. In the spirit of

continual skills development, upskilling and reskilling are prerequisites for a diverse and relevant

skills profile among employees. Collaborating for talent and growth is an important strategic

document in this respect. American Chamber companies regard the closer collaboration of

businesses and the academic community as essential to delivering LLL. Reskilling employees,

particularly those who are at risk of skill depletion must be a collaborative effort.

Disruptive technologies and manufacturing trends have meant that businesses require ever more

agile approaches if they are to remain globally competitive. The flexibility and responsiveness of the

Irish workforce has been a key factor in attracting and retaining a base of world class companies in

Ireland, and continues to be one of our key competitive strengths. Maintaining that flexibility will in

turn require a responsive approach to upskilling and reskilling. This will require continued flexible

online and blended learning options, but in addition there will be further future requirements for

onsite course delivery in companies and

In order to support this objective it will be important to:

Extend the campus of educators to support onsite in-work training.

Encourage the delivery of flexible approaches to training, LLL and other outlets for upskilling

and reskilling.

Ensure the continued relevance and alignment with business need of course content.

Identify ‘at risk’ populations for targeted interventions to prevent the emergence of skills gaps,

ensure reskilling and avoid skills depletion.


Effective Use of Skills:

Implement and manage a Talent Management Strategy needs support from the education system.

Building eco-systems can be strengthened by encouraging regional education-government-industry

collaboration, embedding entrepreneurship into education at all levels and establishing a society-

wide awareness of the future opportunities for careers.

Opportunities to Enhance Skills through Better Management and Innovation Capacity

The capacity of an organisation, the skills of its leadership and the willingness of staff to form,

implement and manage a Talent Management Strategy and related Processes are a key component

to adapting and updating the skills of the existing labour market required to take on the

opportunities as a result of changes in technology, globalisation and demographics.

Across the developed world there is a recognition that economies need to enhance their use of the

existing talent base with greater investment and support for learning and development in the

workplace. Economic growth and social services have higher potential if labour force participation

rates across the population are maximised.

Ireland is a highly open economy with its industrial base operating in a global marketplace not just

for products and services, but also for the resources that make them including talent. Government

has a shared agenda with business leaders to identify, encourage and support initiatives that focus

on the long-term fitness of the existing talent base so that the culture, opportunity and incentives

exist to learn new skills and be adaptable to change.

Employers and their education partners should have the capability to identify development gaps

and deploy innovative solutions to address same, along with the accessible infrastructure to

support delivery of programmes that both recognise prior learning, accredit new learning in the

workplace and seek to enhance/learn new skills to ensure that management and their teams

remain relevant and competitive in a global context. Management education should support and

facilitate leadership teams to develop their capacity to address this task effectively.

It is important for the education system to understand and tap into the fact that the management of

organisations have a key role in determining the future skills and the effective use of existing skills.

Structured talent management processes should be evident in every organisation as a national

systematic effort to drive a culture that promotes the case for, and benefits of, continuous learning

and upskilling. To be successful, barriers need to be considered such as making learning/training

easily accessible, affordable and recognised/accredited.

A culture of innovation must be embraced, supported and be evident by employers and their

education partners. This does not just apply to technology innovation, but across all organizations

and businesses. The potential to leverage new education and training tools to enhance accessibility

and reduce costs (e-learning) should be matched by local value-added support (workshops,

teamwork, shared learning) and accreditation to provide a hybrid solution to provision. Streamlined

and coordinated offerings from regional VECs, SOLAS and all third level providers can contribute to

an enhanced network of support.

The Chamber recommends the establishment of a national strategy and institutional framework to

enhancing management capability to address ‘talent management’ as a leadership issue within the

industrial base.


Fostering Entrepreneurship within the Education System

Embedding entrepreneurship education and skills into the education system will develop a talent

pool that has acquiring generic and entrepreneurial skills, in addition to their academic attainment,

to produce rounded graduates more attuned with the world of commerce.

The Chamber supports the position that promoting a national spirit and culture of

entrepreneurship is an essential part of having a strong pipeline of future skills, innovative

businesses and new start-up enterprises. Education plays an essential role in shaping the attitudes

and culture that encourages and values that attribute. From primary school level up, endeavours in

enterprise and innovation should be celebrated, recognised and rewarded.

A system-wide approach to embedding these skills will be a significant advance on today, though it

must guard against being too prescriptive or diluting the approach taken by individual institutions,

particularly if they are delivering excellent approaches in this area already.

The focus on innovation and enterprise should start at an appropriate level in primary schools and

build and grow right up to Level 9 attainment. Providing an early introduction to small-business

concepts will foster and develop business acumen and challenge students with real-life experience.

These concepts can be introduced in the classroom, with sponsorship from businesses within the

industry.

Experiential learning is critical, e.g. the fostering and encouraging of enterprise and innovation

(including facilitating innovation time), providing a platform for exchange and sharing of ideas

(through hackathons, ‘dragons den’ type initiatives, etc.) and providing support from ideation

through to design/delivery in the form of finance, marketing and mini-start up support, etc., in more

mature cases such as during Transition Year or work experience.

The Chamber is strongly supportive of Junior and Senior Cycle reforms focused on promoting

active and collaborative learning that will allow for a better balance between the development of

subject knowledge, and important life skills and thinking abilities. Moves to innovate in the

curriculum and promote on-going assessment will provide a more conducive environment for

entrepreneurship as a value is placed on teamwork, creativity, critical thinking and communications,

with these approaches recognised over rote learning aimed at single event examinations.

The Chamber members are strongly of the view that the following additional measures are required

to support entrepreneurial education and entrepreneurship skills:

An appropriately tailored and evolving engagement strategy to encourage creative thinking,

innovation and enterprising initiative at every level as the student progresses through the

education system.

Early exposure of students to business concepts and entrepreneurs – in both the commercial

and social entrepreneurship environment.

Put in place the infrastructure required through guest speakers, visits to business environments,

challenges/competitions and case studies to allow for experiential learning. Examples include

encouraging wider and more diverse participation in platforms like CoderDojo, the BT Young

Scientist Exhibition and organisations like Young Social Innovators, among others.

Ensure that Transition Year and work experience opportunities allow for a further development

of an entrepreneurial pathway to work.


Promote a positive culture of innovation, curiosity and questioning the status quo throughout

the education system. The aim should be an open and supportive environment, reducing the

fear and anxiety of failure.

Communicating Future Skills Needs/Career Opportunities

The Chamber believes that the broad understanding between industry-education-Government on

where the opportunities of the future exist must be shared and understood by the wider public.

The message that we are trying to become an economy future-fit really needs to be re-enforced at

every opportunity. This will encourage society towards continued upskilling and those all-important

STEM courses and careers.

The American Chamber is encouraged by, and very supportive of, initiatives like the ‘Smart Futures’

programme managed out of Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) that seeks to work together with

industry, research and education partners to promote knowledge of Science, Technology,

Engineering and Maths (STEM) careers to post-primary students in Ireland. This is pursued through a

number of communications and direct engagement channels with an aim of growing awareness and

improve perceptions of what people working in STEM do and what skills they use/require.

In parallel to a national framework, the Chamber is strongly of the view that robust regional

ownership and engagement, with initiatives to align with local clusters, is vital to sustaining

commitment and ensuring relevance via a local voice. A quadruple helix between Industry,

Education providers, Government and Civil Society as a cluster model has proven results (e.g.

Limerick for IT) when focused on an industry-led programme that seeks innovative short-medium

term fixes to address skills needs/opportunities combined with a reach upstream to stimulate long

term interest in disciplines at all levels of the education system.

The Chamber understands that the key factor influencing young people’s career choices is that they

will ‘fit in’ – either how they themselves feel they will fit into that career or what their parents feel is

a ‘good fit’ for them . A strong collaboration between industry and higher education institutions

should seek to promote the view of ‘careers first and courses second’. Hence our members are very

supportive of initiatives that encourage greater engagement between students at all levels of their

education, and a diversity of enterprise settings with people working in these careers (more often

than not in STEM-based industry with opportunities across a wide range of technical and managerial

career paths) to break-down latent barriers, seed interest and ultimately to provide a larger pool of

talented workers to sustain the economy in the future.

Challenging stereotypes is a shared opportunity. Hence the Chamber members believe that it is

important to identify and leverage appropriate role models to encourage students to explore

opportunities they might otherwise miss. Getting this right can be hugely empowering, inspiring

students to widen their scope when it comes to future career options as the world adapts to the

possibilities of the Internet of Things (IoT), the impact of automation, data exchange and

manufacturing technologies and meeting the demands of environmental sustainability and

demographic change. Ireland has a wealth of enterprises that are global leaders in many of these

fields and there is great potential to showcase the projects they are developing and the skills that

support them.


Recommendations from our members include:

A society-wide communications/media programme to establish a public awareness on the

future opportunities for careers.

Investment and support for single resource points such as ‘SMART Futures’ to develop a Strong

Brand as highly relevant and accessible ‘go-to’ resource for target audiences with segment-

tailored communications strategies.

Encourage and recognise enterprise settings and employee role-model engagement with

students at all levels aimed at challenging stereotypical views on where a student will ‘fit-in’.

The tracking of the public’s perception of future career/jobs to identify gaps versus projected

skills demand by sector and roles/skills.

The Education and Skills System Supporting Regional Clusters Effectively

A focus on regional collaboration, the alignment of funding to incentivise engagement activities,

and the move to ensure system wide coherence are important attributes for an effective

education-industry engagement strategy.

The American Chamber members have been clear in their feedback that ad hoc approaches to

engagement are not sustainable. A more structured approach is the best way to ensure on-going

collaboration. Introducing a single point/forum of entry for education providers/HEIs is, in principle,

the best way to ensure an easy-to-use approach and to deliver those sustainable partnerships.

The existence of collaborative initiatives has been shown to positively impact on the economic

vibrancy of the region. In developing them further they should seek to increase the scale and

capacity industry-led skills cluster models already in existence as well as serve attract new to-the-

region FDI investments, expand the existing investment base and boost job creation

Scaling successful innovative models in the regions must seek to enhance Ireland’s reputation as a

centres of operational excellence and a hub for talent – especially in the science, technology,

engineering and maths based industries. Examples such as ‘Limerick for IT and Engineering’ have

been noted by Chamber members as a model that is helping to secure and grow the talent needed

to compete for global operations and secure investment opportunities. To be successful, the

industry-education dialogue should commence with what needs to be learnt to align with the

opportunities the regional cluster offers.

Collaborative industry-led public-private partnership frameworks are already succeeding in

attracting investment and generating jobs; the potential exists to sustain and enhance these

successes into the future. Aligned within a national enterprise strategy - and enterprise-engagement

strategy -, regional networks will require suitable dedicated resources to facilitate their

establishment and successful scaling to provide a sustained platform for networking, sharing and

local nexus for businesses, academics and public agencies. The Chamber would strongly support:

A systematic and structured approach to industry and education engagement is required, with

a commitment of resources to facilitate connections and manage the industry-(local)

government-education relationship.

An alignment of the Enterprise Training Boards (ETBs), SOLAS and the HEA’s enterprise

strategies to ensure a joined up approach to industries within clusters.

Leverage new communication tools/remote learning by establishing a local support network

around existing regional education and training providers in a blended learning model.


Commitment to scale-up existing successes and encourage their international connectivity.

Developing Language Proficiency for Industry

The American Chamber believes that a truly coherent languages strategy for Ireland is important

to creating a broader sense of ‘global citizenship’. The ‘Smart Futures’ programme has been an

excellent initiative aimed at encouraging pupils to consider career paths through the STEM subjects.

We believe that consideration should be given to aligning this kind of joined up approach with

encouraging career paths in which foreign language proficiency features prominently.

We are of the view that the teaching of a second language should begin at primary level and

transition to secondary and on to third level in a very systematic manner. The member companies of

the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland primarily sell into markets across the EMEA region. As

the Department has noted in its recent consultation document on languages education, many of the

languages spoken in key markets throughout EMEA are increasingly spoken in homes around

Ireland. While not all of these migrants are putting down roots in Ireland, household formation is

increasing to the extent that the 2011 Census noted “the most prevalent household type among all

non-Irish nationals was a couple with children accounting for 34 per cent of households, very close

to that of Irish headed households at 35 per cent.”

The 2011 Census further noted that there are circa 187 nationalities present in Ireland, albeit that

many of those are represented by very small numbers of people. While a number of nationalities

share languages this still represents a significantly diverse linguistic mix. However, there are clearly

dominant languages among the non-Irish population. We do not believe however that policy should

be dictated by the need to facilitate those currently dominant languages, but instead an approach

should be implemented whereby all linguistic communities are enabled in maintaining capabilities in

their mother tongues. The objective should be to ensure that a flexible infrastructure be put in place

to assist mother tongue language learning.

The aim in this approach should be to enable students while minimising the demands on the

education system itself. It has been suggested that this could be achieved by a suite of e-teaching

and e-learning programmes delivered in collaboration with educational authorities in the relevant

country to ensure alignment with the current curriculum1.

The starting point for discussing the role the education system can play in promoting multilingualism

in Ireland is with the two national languages. In effect pupils are taught one language that is both

global and national, and another that is strictly national. Thus Ireland aims to be a multilingual

society in which an appreciation of linguistic diversity is engrained. Added to those two national

languages, as we know, have been a numerous array of foreign languages, primarily other EU

languages but, as mentioned above, also a large number of non-European languages. Some of the

Chamber’s members boast of over 50 languages within their organisations in Ireland. Most business

in Ireland however is conducted in English and the linguistic diversity that we possess is in effect

largely confined to the personal sphere.

Where the education system can play a role in changing this is through greater integration of

languages into the day-to-day teaching of a range of subjects and by providing a wider variety of

language options in schools and our third level institutions. We must be realistic and recognise that

1 See Education and Training Boards Ireland (2013) Rethinking Foreign Language Proficiency


there is a limit to the number of language options that can be made available in educational settings.

If a strategy is to be coherent it must be end to end. Therefore enhancing the teaching and learning

of foreign languages among those for whom it is their own, or their parents’/guardians’, mother

tongue must be done in tandem with a policy to promote some of those languages to pupils for

whom English and Irish are their native languages. The principle to be applied here is that the needs

of the export oriented sector will shift over time, but the education system must be in a position to

respond to those changes.

The annual National Employer Survey on Graduates should be used in order to ensure on-going and

emerging language needs among employers are signalled to the education system. In addition, the

Expert Group on Future Skills Needs is well placed to take a longer term view on the language

requirements of export oriented businesses and should be asked to report on this on a regular basis.

Schools and Higher Education Institutes must be in a position to facilitate mother tongue teaching

and learning and deliver a range of languages relevant to the needs of industry.

The decision to end the Modern Languages in Primary Schools Initiative (MLPSI) was unfortunate. It

has been suggested that the Primary School curriculum is overloaded and that this prevents the

addition of a third language to the core curriculum. It is worth examining this question in a

comparative manner. As has been regularly stated, the Republic of Ireland is the only EU nation

besides Scotland that does not require the teaching of a foreign language as a subject on its

curriculum. We are very much in a minority in Europe on this issue.

While we do not underestimate the strength of concerns regarding curriculum overload as a result

of MLPSI participation, we believe that the final report on the MLPSI showed a strong appetite

among participating teachers and schools in the Initiative to continue with it. We also note the

support documented in the final report among parents for the teaching of a third language at

Primary level.

Anecdotal evidence from this member consultation suggests opportunities today are concentrated

around fluency in Spanish, French, German and the Nordics. There is recognition that Asian

languages will become increasingly important reflecting the global economic balance shifting from

North America-Europe to Asia.

In addition, feedback to the Chamber suggests that there is a need to address the ability of

graduates to use ‘plain English’ to communicate within diverse teams in their workplace.

In summation, the Chamber is of the view that;

Learning of a foreign language should start at an early age with a clear progression path

though levels of education with a significant step-up in capacity to immerse students in their

language of choice to boost fluency levels of attainment.

A CPD programme could be examined to provide motivation for students to remain engaged in

using latent language skills.

Education providers to develop a suite of e-teaching and e-learning programmes delivered in

collaboration with educational authorities in the relevant country to ensure alignment with the

current curriculum.

Include a ‘languages’ element into the SMART Futures outreach to students.


Attracting and Retaining Talent

For the foreseeable future there will remain a need to fill open positions from outside of Ireland.

This is a positive for our country as diverse globalised workforce is one that allows for a broader

range of activities in our business sectors, introduces new ideas and approaches to work, and

delivers a greater global reach for industry. Adapting our education system to allow for a diversity of

cultures, making it more accessible, mutual recognition of qualifications and supporting the

availability for international education programmes for expatriate families on assignment.

There are a number of key areas which require action to deliver the strategic aim of attracting and

retaining talent in Ireland.

Personal tax

The American Chamber welcomes the Government’s commitment to lower personal taxation rates –

a key recommendation of the Chamber in recent years, and one that will send a signal that Ireland

seeks to reward talent and ambition, not penalise it. Ireland’s high marginal tax rate has been a

dissuasive factor for attracting talent, as potential employees may be sought from countries where

their tax burden is lower – often significantly so. Moreover, recent years have seen the addition of

the universal social charge and increased contributions to PRSI. In 2014 we asked our members their

views on the issues and difficulties facing companies when their employees cross borders2. 62% of

respondents cited taxation levels as an issue that would put off potential assignees from coming to

Ireland. In that same survey 92% of respondents stated that they have not attempted to bring in

leadership staff under SARP.

Assignees

The Chamber believe that the reformed Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) relief announced

in Budget 2015, while a welcome improvement, should be further enhanced to apply to income tax,

PRSI and USC and be increased to 35% of qualifying income. We believe the relief should be driven

by the talent and expertise needs of industry, resulting in a tangible contribution to economic

growth, and should aim to be best in class or at the very least internationally competitive. This

would be driven by the need to remain competitive for the skills needs of industry.

An attractive place to live

The cost of living is a key factor in the attractiveness of a location to live and work. As personal

taxation is an important aspect of this assessment, a tax reform agenda to lower the tax burden on

talent will help to improve our competitiveness. In addition, we must not lose sight of the fact that

family and lifestyle priorities play a role in whether staff decide to relocate or not.

Information portals welcoming new arrivals, explaining the benefits of working and living in

Ireland and the practicalities surrounding the relocation and integration process.

Currently, many arrivals into Ireland perceive the school system as difficult to access, and

this can lead to the most expensive option being taken as the best shortcut available in

order to minimise complexity.

2 American Chamber of Commerce Ireland and Taxback ‘Global Mobility Survey 2014’


The supply of affordable and accessible accommodation is at a crucial juncture in Ireland and

this could affect our ability to attract talent from abroad.

It is important that we promote our strengths internationally, that we promote a culture of outward

looking talent development, and specifically we support the provision of a one-stop-information-

shop for new arrivals to Ireland.


Key Performance Indicators

This submission contains a large number of recommendations and actions which the membership of

the American Chamber regard as vital to ensure the National Skills Strategy delivers the necessary

impact and reform. Below we set out some key performance indicators which we believe will assist

in tracking the progress of a number of our key actions.

Digital Skills: implementation of Digital Strategy for Schools and subsequent uptake of ICT

courses at Leaving Certificate.

Digital Skills: sustained improvement in our ranking on the European Commission’s Digital

Economy and Society Index.

PhDs: set ambitious targets to grow and retain the PhD community in line with national

strategic objectives

PhDs: systematically track the numbers of PhD graduates by (i) those in fundamental versus

applied research roles, (ii) those in academic; research centre and industry roles, and (iii)

whether they are located in Ireland or another jurisdiction

Life Long Learning: exceed the EU average for participation in Life Long Learning.

Life Long Learning: higher levels of flexible part-time course delivery to be measured

through the National Employers Survey.

Recognition of Prior Learning: development and implementation of framework for

recognition by higher education institutions.

Work Readiness: greater provision of work placements on third level courses.

Work Readiness: use of Irish Survey of Student Engagement to track course content

alignment with workplace skills need.

Engagement: number of schools/places of education receiving visits/tours/talks related to

industry.

Tax system: review of tax system with a view to supporting Life Long Learning and retention

in the workplace fo older employees.

Talent Management: development of framework and subsequent roll out to support Talent

Management Strategy.

Communications: track public perception of future career/job opportunities to identify gaps

as against projected skills demand by sector and roles/skills.

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