Network Stories

Time is at a premium for all business owners, particularly for SME owners. A successful speed networking series - Networking Donegal – managed and run by Northwest Skillnet, is giving business owners in the region the opportunity to network effectively with up to 30 people in just 90 minutes. The series has become a much-anticipated event...

This year, the Irish Franchising Skillnet intends to address urgent skills demand in their sector, while at the same time offering job-seekers effective training and career development prospects. As part of the network’s Job-seekers Support Programme (JSSP), the Irish Franchising Skillnet and the National College of Ireland (NCI) are...

The Medtech sector is growing with an additional 4,000 jobs likely to be created in Ireland by 2020, according to a new report by the Irish Medtech Association Skillnet and Irish Medtech Association. Notably, nearly a third of these new jobs are to be in specialised areas of R&D and engineering, highlighting the importance of getting the...

This summer the Shingo Institute (part of the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University), travelled across Ireland visiting manufacturing sites to showcase Ireland’s world-class performance in the area of operational excellence. Ireland has the most Shingo awards of any country per capita in the world, with seven...

Eight senior executives from four Shannon companies were conferred with Diplomas in High Performance Leadership by the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) at a special graduation ceremony held in Dromoland Castle Hotel, organised by Shannon Chamber Skillnet. The diploma is the first of its kind at NFQ Level 8 in Ireland, and is an...

The transition from education to the world of work is challenging for many graduates. The tech sector has a large number of well-paid vacancies currently open, with the opportunity to build exciting and varied careers. Software Skillnet is bridging this gap with the KickStart programme, a conversion programme for graduates, with an extremely...

Skillnets would like to congratulate participants on their successful completion of the newly developed Recently Appointed Managers (RAM) programme. Managing an enterprise-led learning network can be challenging, given the breadth of associated activities, particularly for people who are new to the role. The aim of the programme is to immerse...

This summer, business leaders from across the South East gathered in Kilkenny to explore how best to build greater management capacity within their businesses. The gathering took place in the Lyrath Estate Hotel, Kilkenny at a learning and development conference co-hosted by Waterford Chamber Skillnet, County Tipperary Skillnet and Carlow...

Food labelling regulations and meeting new market challenges for Irish Food Producers

In May, the Taste 4 Success Skillnet hosted a Symposium in Fermoy in partnership with UCC Food Industry Training Unit for senior food technologists and member companies from the industry for Irish Food Producers. The agenda focused on...

A group of 16 managers from dairy processing co-ops including Aurivo, Arrabawn, Dairygold, Glanbia and Tipperary have become the first in Ireland to successfully complete a new Management Development Programme, designed exclusively for the Irish co-operative sector by ICOS Skillnet - the learning and development division of ICOS (Irish Co-...

With global tech giants and local SMEs building world-leading software products in Cork, local network it@Cork Skillnet joined forces with Poppulo (formerly Newsweaver) and DesignWizard to create RebelCon, a dedicated software conference for developers in Cork.

Over 170 software...

Macra na Feirme's Young Farmer Skillnet has announced the launch of its Young Beef Farmer Sustainability Programme in association with Dawn Meats.  The programme takes place from September 2017 to March 2018 and is designed to help ambitious young farmers to develop their farming skills, their...

In February, the Innovation & Lean Sigma Skillnet, First Polymer Skillnet and the Midland Regional Skills Forum ran a series of networking events across the midlands, in Laois, Offaly and Longford.  The theme of these events was ‘Helping your Business to Sustain & Grow through Innovation, Training & Networking...

The CPA Ireland Skillnet has developed a new online platform to give its members instant access to key courses needed to set up in practice. In the past these courses were only offered twice a year, once in Dublin and once in Cork. This inflexible method of delivery meant that any accountant looking to develop into practice had to wait until a...

First Polymer Training Skillnet recently hosted a Medical Polymers and Processing Technology seminar at its training centre in Athlone. This event showcased the importance of polymer technology to Ireland's wider manufacturing base. The manufacturing industry is the second largest employer in Ireland with 220,000 people with €1.7...

Wind Skillnet has developed two new programmes to ensure that their members will have access to the skillsets and knowledge needed for future EU requirements. With a range of new upcoming EU legislation, regulations and directives for the wind sector, being prepared from a compliance perspective is vital, but it is also essential for companies...

Following on from the huge success of the AtlanTec ’16 technology festival last year, AtlanTec has grown from a two-week into a two-month event for 2017. The Information Technology Association of Galway (ITAG) Skillnet plays a key role in facilitating the festival, which combines renowned international speakers with a series of innovative...

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are a core element of our economy and it is vital that they have the skills to scale their businesses and realise their full potential. This was the key message delivered by Pat Breen T.D., Minister for Employment and Small Business, when he launched the Up-Skilling the Mid-West event in...

Regulatory affairs are increasingly recognised as a having a “whole business” impact for organisations, and companies are required to invest time and money to improve their up-skilling strategies for their regulatory affairs professionals. Demand is increasing for regulatory talent that can understand the implications of the rapidly...

Hickey’s Pharmacies, an Irish-owned Community Pharmacy Group has been a member of ISME Skillnet since 2015.  Mike Curran, Operations Manager for the group, speaks about the experience of becoming a member of the network, and the impact of ISME Skillnet’s Essential Management Skills programme on their business and their staff of...

Addressing the gender balance in technology companies and ensuring that women are retained and re-engaged is an important priority for the Irish tech sector. An innovative new programme - Women ReBOOT - designed and developed by ISA Software Skillnet is connecting highly-skilled women that want to return to the tech industry after a career...

Law Society Skillnet held a one-day symposium on 24th March in Dublin. Conscious of the need to raise the profile of the Skillnets value proposition among their member companies, while also revitalising the learning experiences of their members, the network reimagined what a Law Society Skillnet event could look like.  By focusing on...

Curtiss-Wright Dublin has been a member of the Space Industry Skillnet for over a decade. It was recently awarded the largest ESA-related contract ever given to an Irish-based operation, a contract worth €4.5m. The confidence placed in Curtiss-Wright by the award of this contract establishes the Dublin operation as one of the world leaders...

National Organic Training Skillnet (NOTS) received the award for the Best Learning and Development Organisation (Network & Groups) in Ireland at the annual Irish Institute of Training and Development (IITD) Awards, which took place in the Killashee House Hotel in Kildare in March.

The award was given to the network in recognition of...

Craft entrepreneurs and artisan producers are by nature creative, but can often struggle to make the transition from hobbyist to commercial producer.

Waterford Chamber Skillnet responded to this challenge with a new programme aimed at equipping entrepreneurs with the necessary business skills to grow their enterprise: Craft Academy...

The ITAG Skillnet/AtlanTec Hackathon took place in Galway in October. It was a landmark event, Ireland's first Internet of Things (IoT) Hackathon, and was supported by IBM and Cisco.

ITAG Skillnet member companies brought in technical experts from the US and UK, as well as supplying home grown talent from their Galway labs.  ...

The growth of the life sciences sector in Ireland is creating a wide range of career opportunities now and into the future. According to a report on the Future Skills Needs of the Biopharma Industry in Ireland, published by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) earlier this year, up to 8,400 job openings will arise in the biopharma...

Gréasán na Meán Skillnet brought L.A. to Galway recently, running Steve Kaplan’s Comedy Intensive, a two-day comedy-writing training course for writers, producers, directors and actors.

Tutor Steve Kaplan has been the entertainment industry’s leading expert on comedy for more than 15 years. His credits include: Co-founder and...

Animation Skillnet, in partnership with Screen Training Ireland, held the VFX (Visual Effects) and Animation Symposium in Dublin in October. The one-day symposium was packed full of exciting talks on the latest creative and technological advances in the area of VFX and animation. The event was also supported by the Irish Film Board, the...

There has been a growing demand in recent years from enterprise for people with specialised competency in UX (user experience) design.  The new ISA Software Skillnet Postgraduate Diploma in UX Design aims to produce skilled and knowledgeable UX designers to fill the software industry’s skills gap in this area into the future.

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A major issue for companies is the difficulty of retaining graduates, after investing a significant amount of time and resources.  New graduates are happy to join a company for their graduate programmes but often leave very shortly afterwards. Business Excellence Skillnet held a cross-sectoral Networking Forum in Boston Scientific in Cork...

A new Management Development Programme, designed specifically and exclusively for the Irish co-operative sector, has been launched by ICOS Skillnet, the learning and development division of ICOS (Irish Co-operative Organisation Society). 

The new programme was developed following widespread consultation within the industry.  It...

Best practice visits are all about not ‘re-inventing the wheel’ before you start on a project. For companies that want to improve the outcome of a project, seeing first-hand how a world-class organisation delivers its results is incredibly beneficial. This is not learned in a classroom but through seeing in the manufacturing areas...

Companies are facing daily challenges to develop staff capacity to deal with technical problems of maintaining the security and integrity of their data and operations as well as staying current on new practices. Cyber Security is more than a technology problem. For many organisations, cyber incident occurrences aren’t a question of...

Macra na Feirme are asking their members to take the lead on farm safety, with the launch of the Safe Agri Skills card, delivered and developed through the Macra na Feirme Young Farmers Skillnet. Safe Agri Skills is the first and only programme of its kind - a suite of short training courses in relevant areas around farm safety, covering...

Gréasán na Meán Skillnet recently developed and delivered a new training course, designed to train job-seekers in the skills necessary to become Irish language multi-camera directors.  The course took six trainees through an intensive week long training initiative covering the fundamentals required to plan, stage, shoot and edit television...

Earlier this year Taste4Success Skillnet, in conjunction with KSG Catering, designed and developed an 8-week fast-track Chef Start programme for job-seekers that is City and Guilds accredited. The course offers those on the live register with a keen interest and passion for cooking an opportunity to develop a new career in the hospitality...

A recent survey of participants in Skillnets’ ManagementWorks Lean Programmes shows strong return on investment for companies.  A key element of each programme is the delivery of a return-focused project. The return on investment for the company, estimated by programme participants, averaged at just under €15,000 per project. 60...

Fifteen job-seekers took part in Role Skillnet’s Job-seekers Support Programme (JSSP) in Foundation Cookery, which aimed to equip participants with practical cookery skills to enable them to source employment in the food and hospitality sectors. The course took place in Roscommon in spring, and was designed to coincide with the beginning...

Animal Health Ireland Skillnet has supported the expansion of the National Cellcheck Mastitis Programme to dairy farmers across the country.

Animal Health Ireland Skillnet, which was formed last year, enabled the expansion of the Cellcheck programme to three training courses, allowing more farmers to receive training in improving the...

‘Driving Safety, from Desk to Digger’ was the theme of the sixth annual Health and Safety Conference delivered by Wind Skillnet in June.

Nearly 100 companies from across the Wind industry attended the conference, which examined the importance of health and safety, with an emphasis on first-person accounts, and role play....