G4 Educational Attainment and Skills Development
G4: Educational Attainment & Skills Development – Actions
FET and Skills Development
The goal will be to provide for enhanced local education and skilling access, including enhanced access from currently excluded communities. In this regard, the delivery of SICAP in Kilkenny, aimed at tackling poverty, social exclusion and long-term unemployment through local engagement and partnership between disadvantaged individuals, community organisations and public sector agencies, will be supported.
Community and voluntary sector facilities, Arts Centres and Libraries will be engaged to drive new ideas in the area of training and education - specifically for those who wish to build a career in arts and culture. The potential of e-learning to provide access to information for otherwise hard to engage communities will be exploited.
3rd Level Provision
The Action Plan for Jobs 2015 cites the improvement in skills provision that have occurred over the past years, including the launch of SOLAS, the establishment of the Kilkenny and Carlow Education and Training Board, the Momentum Programme, and the raft of employment incentive schemes such as JobsPlus and the doubling of high-end skills as part of the second ICT Skills Action Plan.
The Kilkenny LECP recognises the need to develop high-end skills, in particular in ICT, analytics and engineering. This demand must be met by increasing domestic graduate supply from the local higher education sector. The LECP also notes the local importance of the agri-foods, tourism, craft and the digital arts sectors.
The LECP further notes the importance of ensuring that all have access to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) education, since these are increasingly central to the majority of employment opportunities being created.
G4: Actions Summary
A27: Identify key sectoral needs in terms of management and business development and co-ordinate training activities in response to sectoral needs.
A28: Establish a local Enterprise Training and Education Forum to ensure co-ordinated delivery of enterprise training and management development supports to small business owners and entrepreneurs in the County.
A29: Promote greater awareness of the tourism product/offering across the County (through initiatives such as “Know Your Own County” Campaign); develop tourism ambassadors for the County; and highlight potential career opportunities within the tourism sector. This will also include delivery of Local Tour Guide Training Programmes to upskill service providers, to increase knowledge and co-ordination of existing and new visitor attractions, and to encourage cluster marketing and collective initiatives.
A30: Undertake to ascertain potential job opportunities in Kilkenny and assess skills requirements and qualifications. Respond through education and training initiatives working closely with business community and second and 3rd Level sectors. This action will include the potential of training across a broad spectrum from traditional building skills to digital media/film production and will also involve proactively engaging with third level institutes to further enhance and develop 3rd and 4th level education provision, based on Kilkenny’s strengths and emerging opportunities.