History

• Established in 1999 to support the development of workplace skills, Skillnets Ltd is an enterprise-led publicly funded body.

• The Skillnets Board includes representatives of the employer bodies IBEC, Chambers Ireland, Construction Industry Federation (CIF), Small Firms Association (SFA) as well as representatives of employee bodies through the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) and also representatives of the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

• The Training Networks Programme (TNP) is a unique initiative of Skillnets Ltd., and is funded from the National Training Fund through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

• The programme funds training networks (Skillnets) which are groups of enterprises that come together to decide what training they require, when they require it and in what form the training should be delivered.

• Enterprises can identify their training needs and devise suitable local training responses.  Skillnets does not specify the type of scope of training but supports the networks with resources and expertise.

• The Skillnets approach is particularly relevant to small and medium enterprises (SME's), which can often lack the expertise, time or money to deliver effective training policies.

• Co-investment between Skillnets and enterprises.

• Training networks are funded over a two year period.  123 networks across the country are currently funded across a variety of regions and sectors.

• To date, Skillnets has funded 150 Training Networks and supported over 15,000 companies and over 100,000 employees to meet their training needs.  By coming together companies can increase their buying power, reduce training costs and subsequently access forms of training that might otherwise have been too expensive or specialist for a company to do on their own.

The Midwest Regional Engineering Skillnet is funded by member companies an the Training Networks programme, an initiative of Skillnets Ltd. Funded from the National Training Fund through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.