Ireland's Talent Landscape 2024 - Challenges and Opportunities.

Skillnet Ireland has released research analysing the future skills challenges for Irish business looking forward to Ireland’s talent landscape for 2024. Released by Skillnet Ireland on the 3rd of April 2024, this report surveyed leaders across 500 businesses of all sizes in Ireland. The aim of this report was to analyse the challenges across the board regarding upskilling, talent challenges and recruitment.  The findings from the report are detailed below.

Future Skills and Talent Challenges 

Businesses recognise that the ongoing development of the workforce is crucial for Ireland’s competitiveness with the majority engaging in regular upskilling and talent development activities. The key findings in this area include:

• 56% of businesses have experienced a shift in their core skills in the past two to three years, while 61% anticipate further changes over the same period. 
• 41% of businesses are facing difficulties in finding employees with the necessary skillsets.  
• Businesses identified financial risk management (48%), technical and engineering (30%) and marketing (55%) as skillsets that are vital for future competitiveness, but business decision makers identified challenges in sourcing talent with these capabilities.  
• Business leaders recognise the importance of upskilling existing employees with 41% stating that upskilling is intrinsically linked to business growth. 
• For 43% of businesses, time is a significant hurdle, followed closely by the cost of training, which hindered 29% of respondents.  

Meeting Members' Needs

29% encountered the challenge of relevance, as they perceived the pool of available programmes as not fully meeting their needs. This indicated potential opportunities for more specific training programmes and the need for greater emphasis on increasing awareness among businesses of the range of enterprise-driven supports available.  

As the leading training provider for the Independent Radio Sector in Ireland, Learning Waves ensures the needs of their members are being met through fostering ongoing communication between the network manager, stations and trainers. Learning Waves works with over 40 highly skilled trainers to give our members the best training available in the industry. To continuously meet member needs, the network actively encourages all members to engage with them, ensuring that their training requirements are not only met but exceeded. 

Management Training  

49% of owner managers have accessed or sought upskilling or mentoring support, with 41% regarding upskilling, reskilling, and talent development as key to maintaining the competitiveness of their business. The results of this study have highlighted the importance of upskilling and retaining staff within an organisation instead of recruiting outside the business. This involves enhancing managers' skills to help them identify the needs of their employees. 

Learning Waves' Senior Management Programme - Manage | Lead | Inspire allows senior managers within the radio sector in Ireland the time to invest in themselves, to re-imagine their leadership style, to practice inclusive leadership, and to enhance their skills as a leader. This programme has had a significant impact on senior managers across the sector. Marion Barry, Sales Manager at South East Radio, completed the course in 2023. Reflecting on the course, Marion had this to say,  "When I began this course, I was completely new to management. This course touched on such a wide range of topics, and it benefited both my work and personal life. It has given me the confidence to open new conversations with people and tailor existing work relationships. I am more self-aware and conscious of the decisions I make, as a team leader and as a staff member. I feel I understand how to laser-focus on points to help balance work and work relationships. I find that I approach things very differently now compared to before the course."

This programme is fully booked for 2024, reflecting the overwhelming need for this training in the sector and the positive impact it has had on participants to date.  The high demand for course placements underscores its popularity. The ability of the network to deliver additional programmes in this area is funding dependant and a key challenge for the network in 2024 will be in maximising funding available for this programme from Skillnet Ireland. 

Digitalisation 

• 65% of businesses surveyed highlighted that their staff will require some form of upskilling to facilitate their digital transition, with over 30% indicating that over half of employees would need digital upskilling.  
• Among the digital skills considered pivotal for future growth is Microsoft Office Skills (68%), the internet of things (52%) and cloud computing (47%).  
• Businesses also fully appreciate the profound role that Artificial Intelligence is poised to play in shaping global competitiveness and productivity.  

Skillnet Ireland and IDA Ireland research highlights importance of upskilling employees with key digital skills. Launched on Tuesday, January 16th, this is the first joint study delivered as a result of the successful partnership between two state agencies. Primary data was gathered through detailed focus group discussions with 36 industry leaders representing 13 global, digitally transformed organisations. An anonymous online survey was completed by 108 industry leaders representing a spectrum of functions and industry types. The findings from that process were tested in workshops with 15 subject matter experts and those findings can be summarised as follows:

• Ireland has highlighted the need to upskills employees with key digital skills, with 49% of respondents to a survey identifying data analysis as a skill gap for employed at all levels.  
• Industry leaders consulted overwhelmingly raised the importance of improving data literacy across the board.  
• Data and Digital Skills are no longer the remit of technical or IT roles. Rather, the workforce as a whole is going to need to be able to interpret, use and create meaning from data, and have the digital proficiency to work with technology and improve efficiency.  

Learning Waves delivered a variety of digital training programmes in 2023. Almost 500 participants engaged in over 50 digital training programmes ranging from areas such as social media, Microsoft skills, and Adobe skills. The radio sector has been disrupted by digital media. This has been coming for some years, however the addition of a global pandemic and vast changes in media consumption has changed the way we consume media and has impacted how content is consumed and commercial revenue is generated. Learning Waves has been a springboard for digital transformation in the sector through the design and delivery of bespoke training programmes. 

The Certificate for Digital Sales in Radio course offers a structured approach to selling digital in commercial radio in Ireland. 15 participants across 7 radio stations completed the 7-week course in 2023. With the activation of the digital projects created within this course, €50,000 in new revenue was generated across the participating radio stations. 

Conclusion

The results of this report reveal valuable insights into the skills needs of businesses in Ireland, as well as the challenges they are facing in meeting those needs. The majority of businesses recognise that upskilling, reskilling and talent development are increasingly important for them to remain competitive. However, access to ongoing financial support, including that from Skillnet Ireland is crucial in supporting organisations capabilities to meet these challenges.  The research provides an excellent platform for industry and funding providers to re-evaluate funding and training models that will work in 2024 and beyond.  

Read the full report here.