SOLAS Launch the Future Skills Ireland Forum
SOLAS/03.12.2025
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The inaugural SOLAS Future Skills Ireland Forum was launched this week on the 1st December in the RDS, Dublin, marking a significant step forward in the future skills ambition for Ireland.
The impactful and successful event which was attended and supported by leaders in skills, policy, culture, creativity and inclusion across the island of Ireland encouraged a strategic focus, reflection and debate as part of a vibrant and important National Skills Conversation.
Led by Shauna Dunlop, Director of Research, Future Skills Needs, Statistics and Risk at SOLAS, the Forum follows the successful launch of the SOLAS Future Skills Ireland Podcast earlier this year.
As part of the event, attendees heard from the SOLAS Interim Chief Executive Nessa White on the SOLAS ambition for future skills and the important role Further Education and Training will play in this development, which will be required to meet national strategic challenges such as in digitisation, climate change, decarbonisation and demographic change.
Themes of the day included conversations on AI Skills and Technology, Creativity, Arts and Culture and Inclusion and Connection.
Speakers and contributors on the theme of AI Skills and Technology included Dr Kevin Marshall, Chair of the National Skills Council, Ireland, Phuong Vu, CEO and Founder of Talexa and Damian Duffy, Interim Chief Executive of Belfast Metropolitan College. The growing demand for AI Skills and the need to ensure we are equipped to address the challenges and opportunities presented by AI Skills and Technology was a central part of this part of the discussion.
Celebrating the power of creativity in skills and learning, the SOLAS Future Skills Ireland Forum shone a spotlight on skills in arts, culture and language, in shaping the creative economy of tomorrow and the role of the tertiary education system in delivering outcomes right across society, with real impact and success. Speakers and contributors included Joan Burney Keatings MBE, Cinemagic, Professor P.J. Matthews, Creative Futures Academy, UCD and Dr Selina Guinness, Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology.
A special showreel prepared for the event also showcased the creative talent across the country, in, arts, culture, music and heritage with a focus on innovation and ambition for the Irish Language, celebrating leading institutions including Education and Training Boards, Higher Education Institutions and skills and education partners.
Inclusion and connection took centre stage, with a central message for the need to empower every learner to thrive through a dual focus of skills and opportunity, in support of a society where we continue to have critical skills priorities to address, including in the areas of construction, climate and green skills. On this theme, leading contributors included Professor Michael Shevlin, Trinity College Dublin and the Trinity Centre for People with Intellectual Disabilities, Kathleen O’Hare, Chair of the National Skills Council, Northern Ireland, and John Kelly and Padraig Boland from Laois and Offaly Education and Training Board.
Shauna Dunlop said: The SOLAS Future Skills Ireland Forum provides an important platform for skills leaders to come together, to continue to shape and inform the National Skills Conversation. Our research, data and skills intelligence are important components in how we can understand and shape the future direction of skills, the conversation will support and inform the national ambition for the National Skills Observatory as part of the future skills landscape.
An important engagement also took place following the Forum focused on an all of island strategic skills dialogue led by Belfast Metropolitan College in preparation for the planned Peace Plus C-CASE initiative. More information is available on this here:
SOLAS looks forward to further engagement on the National Skills Conversation and advancing the Future Skills Ireland ambition.
Information on the SOLAS Future Skills Ireland Podcast is available here: Solas | Learning Works | SOLAS Launches First Podcast on Future Skills Needs in Ireland