Speech by Minister McGuinness at the Presentation of the CPD Company of the Year Awards

Wednesday October 15^th 2008

Thank you John (Power) for your introduction,

Good morning ladies and gentleman, it gives me great pleasure to be here today at the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Company of the Year Awards. These important awards encourage and reward innovation and best practice in the engineering sector of our economy. The CPD forms a critical strategy to ensure that our top employers and their talented employees continue to grow and develop to compete on the world stage.

I would like to congratulate all of the companies involved in the CPD. Achieving CPD Accreditation shows a commitment to excellence and to the setting of high standards. To all of the companies who have entered today’s awards I say a special well done – the process of making an entry for these awards is worthwhile in itself, allowing companies to identify the business benefits of placing training and development at the core of their business strategy.

The CPD Accreditation scheme supports lifelong learning by stimulating and recognising good organisational practice in the areas of professional development for engineers and technical staff. The CPD hallmark recognises those engineering employers that have excellent CPD systems in place where developmental objectives are aligned with the strategic goals of the organisation.

I want to take this opportunity to acknowledge the excellent work Engineers Ireland does in the continued promotion and rollout of the CPD programme. The CPD hallmark recognises excellence in continuing professional development practices that provide clear business benefits to participating companies, matching best international practice.

It is appropriate also that, as an organisation with a particular focus on the development of professional human resources, Engineers Ireland are actively encouraging and facilitating engineers to commit to lifelong learning in order to keep abreast of change and progress.

The CPD programme supports such learning by emphasising good business and organisational practices in the professional development of engineers and technical staff. The importance of lifelong learning for engineers is now central to the mission of Engineers Ireland. In this respect it is reflective of Government policy that seeks to advance the primacy of life-long learning in a knowledge-based and high value-added economy.

The importance of lifelong learning has been increasingly recognised over the past few years. It is in my view an essential component of any modern knowledge based economy and in these particularly challenging times will assist us in competing against our international competitors. The economic climate has changed greatly in the past few months; indeed it is still in an evolving process of transition as we speak. Events over the last few weeks and in particular the present financial turmoil, which is gripping the entire world economy, demonstrate not only the pace of change but also the sheer scale of globalisation in the twenty first century.

The quality and intensity of global competition is increasing all the time. Our competitors will continue to work hard to make their business climates and infrastructures more attractive to global investors and many will rely on labour cost advantages.

Ireland is like the majority of other countries feeling the affects of the present economic turmoil. However, we remain an attractive location for high-end, skill-intensive operations. Yet if we are to continue to prosper then it is pivotal that we take action now in key vital areas that will enable us to safeguard our future economic and social development.

The skills and competencies level of our labour force is one such area. This Government firmly believes that our future success can only be guaranteed by continuing our policy of investing in our education and training systems. We must continue to produce highly educated and skilled individuals. We must ensure that the country has a labour force with the ability to not only meet the needs of enterprises but also more importantly to allow Ireland to quickly respond to emerging opportunities that will present themselves in the future.

In short Ireland must create and develop competitive advantage in terms of the skills and qualifications of our labour force. This will be key to maintaining our success and will allow us to continue to compete in the increasingly competitive global marketplace.

Lifelong learning will therefore in my view play a key role in enabling Ireland remain competitive in the future. We must encourage greater participation in lifelong learning by facilitating and motivating people to increase their skill levels and qualifications.

However, as shown in yesterday’s budget the Government has made some tough decisions that were aimed at helping the entire country through this particularly difficult period. These decisions and in particular the reductions announced yesterday were necessary to maintain competitiveness in the present challenging environment. In light of rising unemployment figures the Government prioritised the reallocation of resources to those individuals who need assistance the most at this present time.

That said the Government remains committed to promoting standards of excellence and professionalism in the economy through the use of lifelong learning. We must continue to look to the future with optimism and, in so far as we can, continue to invest in our future economic potential. Our investment in the education and training of our workforce cannot at this moment in time be as large as it was in the recent past. But we will continue to invest in the skills of our people during this economically challenging period. The Government is determined that we will continue to invest in human capital development so that the Irish workforce continues to be characterised as being highly skilled and meeting the existing and future needs of businesses. We must maintain our skills base in order to be ready to seize future opportunities when they once again present themselves.

Guiding our investment in education and training is the Government’s commitments in the Social Partnership agreement, “Towards 2016”, the National Development Plan and in particular the National Skills Strategy. This Strategy, which was published last year, contains an ambitious vision for the skills profile in Ireland in 2020. It shows that if Ireland is to progress ahead of our competitors then we need to increase our focus on skills development at a number of levels.

We need to upskill, by at least one level, on the National Framework of Qualifications, an additional 500,000 people by 2020. The National Skills Strategy has helped us to target specific skills and sectors that will become increasing important in the next few years. It has allowed us to identify and address specific gaps in our skills base. It will help us to build an education and training system that will allow us to quickly adapt and respond to the changing global business environment.

My colleague Minister of State Seán Haughey T.D. has responsibility for overseeing an implementation process and bringing together the relevant Departments to ensure a co-ordinated response. Minister Haughey chairs the interdepartmental committee for the implementation of the National Skills Strategy. This committee, which consists of senior officials from the Departments of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the Department of Education and Science and the Department of Finance, is responsible for preparing an implementation plan. Work has commenced on the preparation of this plan and I understand that it is expected to be completed early next year.

There is no doubt that investing strategically in training and development is critical in a knowledge-economy. It is important to recognise those that have achieved clear-cut business benefits and thus maintained the competitiveness of Irish business.

That is why I am particularly pleased to offer my congratulations to Changing Worlds, the overall winner of the CPD Company of the Year award for 2008. It is wonderful to see an indigenous Irish employer, founded in the UCD Innovation Centre, attain such a level of global success in a technologically complex field. The company was founded in 1999 to commercialise the award-winning research developed by the Smart Media Institute in UCD. It is a stunning example of Irish innovation being successfully taken into the global marketplace by Irish entrepreneurs.

I would also like to offer congratulations to the winners of the other categories:

• Small-sized employer – Clarke and Associates
• Large-sized employer – Pfizer Ireland Pharmaceuticals
• Public sector employer – Waterford County Council

And congratulations go again to Changing Worlds, who also picked up an award in the medium-sized employer category.

The Galway factory of Boston Scientific has been important to the local and national economy for many years. I was pleased to hear the recent announcement by the company to invest €50 million in research and development at the Galway plant. Boston Scientific has been awarded the Outstanding CPD Company Award 1998-2008 in recognition of their long-term commitment to upskilling their staff to ensure excellence.

In this rapidly changing environment it is all the more important that we recognise and reward excellence and innovation in our economy. The Government is committed to investing in lifelong learning opportunities for our work force but in order to be truly effective this will require a similar commitment from business, the social partners and individuals. If we are to succeed then we must all fully embrace the opportunity and challenge that lifelong learning presents to us individually and to us collectively as a nation.

Thank you.

ENDS/TC339