Monitoring Ireland's Skills Supply 2016 published by the EGFSN

Monitoring Ireland’s Skills Supply 2016 is the eleventh in a series of annual publications produced by the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit in SOLAS on behalf of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs. The Report aims to monitor the potential supply of skills emerging from the education and training system; it also aims to provide a profile of the current skills of the population by education level.

Monitoring Ireland’s Skills Supply outlines a number of features relating to the supply of skills available in Ireland’s labour market. The Report shows that the education profile of the population has shifted towards higher levels of education attainment in recent years. The change is due to a number of factors, including migration, with the impact on the education profile varying according to education level. It is also important to note that the size of Ireland’s young adult population has fallen considerably due to low birth rates and high outward migration; this in turn may affect the availability of young, skilled persons in the labour market.

In addition, there were also increases in the number of awards made in the further education and training (FET) and higher education sectors. While almost half of awards tend to be in social science, business and law (SSBL) or health and welfare, a growing number are now being made in the more technical areas of science, computing and engineering.

Read the full report here