In Pictures: Future skills expert shares knowledge with Donegal ETB FET Staff

Donegal ETB’s Further Education and Training (FET) service have had a look into the crystal ball of employment needs following a professional development seminar with leading Future of Work expert, Peter Cosgrove.

The focus of last Friday’s seminar was the future of work and the skills people will require in the future to secure employment.

Futurist Peter Cosgrove is an expert on future trends and founder of the Future of Work Institute in Ireland. He specialises in gender diversity, talent, artificial intelligence and robots and shared the latest insights and research from across the world of work, technology, diversity and talent.

Other speakers on the day included Dr Oran Doherty, manager of the North West Regional Skills Forum and Charlie Boyle of Customer Services Excellence Ireland, who both shared information on the skills local employers are seeking from potential employees. Other contributors were learners who had participated in ETB FET courses, as well as community and industry representatives.

Speakers at the Donegal ETB’s Further Education and Training (FET) service professional development seminar: Seated from left are Dr Oran Doherty, Manager of the North West Regional Skills Forum, Anne McHugh, Donegal ETB Chief Executive, Futurist, Peter Cosgrove, Niamh Kennedy, ETB Vice Chairperson and Cróna Gallagher, Director of FET, Donegal ETB. Back from left Colm Richardson, Assistant Training Manager, Charlie Boyle of Customer Services Excellence Ireland, Vinny McGroary, Area Training Manager, Regina Barr, Industry Stakeholder, Pat Boyle, Learning for Living Programme, Paul Kernan, Pobal le Cheile, Paul Doherty, Post Leaving Cert Programme, Martina Needham, Adult Education Officer and Charlie Gorney, ETB Adult Education Office Photo Clive Wasson

Cróna Gallagher, Director of FET, Donegal ETB, stated, “We are delighted that Peter Cosgrove could come to Donegal to share his expertise with so many of our FET staff. We brought our staff together to review the ETB’s FET service and to plan for the coming year, with a view to improving our offering to the public in Donegal.

“The world of work is changing rapidly and the insights shared by Peter, Oran and Charlie with our staff gave us a valuable context for our discussions and will help us to frame our planning with the aim of providing a quality service for FET learners in the county.

“We have learned today that everyone entering the world of work in the future will require improved communications, ICT and ‘soft’ skills such as team working and problem solving and we will be building these requirements into the content of all our courses in the future,” said Ms Gallagher.

Donegal ETB is the largest provider of Further Education and Training (FET) in Co. Donegal, with over 11,000 learners completing courses in more than 120 venues in 2017, leading to certification at levels 1-6 on the National Framework of Qualifications, as well as a wide range of industry and vendor certificates.

Anne McHugh, Donegal ETB Chief Executive, remarked, “With the fourth industrial revolution underway, I am very pleased to have such a great line up of future skills experts to speak to our FET staff and to provide staff with time to reflect on the FET service that we provide across the county.”

Further updates on Friday’s event can be found on Donegal ETB’s Twitter account (@DonegalETB).