Debate contribution: Skills Gaps between Young People and Businesses

Debate contribution by Mr David Honeyford on 30 September 2025.

MLA

Mr David Honeyford

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

30 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Skills Gaps between Young People and Businesses

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5142906

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. The latest figures, released this week, show that almost 25,000, or 10%, of our young people between the ages of 16 and 24 are not in education, employment or training (NEET). They are without hope and have had their futures put on hold. Rather than table one on culture wars or the constitutional battles that we have week in, week out in this place, Alliance tabled this motion, which speaks to our core values of social justice, reconciliation, building a shared society, working to share this island and just making life better for everyone. To do that, we cannot leave 25,000 young people behind. It is an issue that the Assembly must tackle. It is fundamentally wrong to complain that our young people are lazy. We heard that narrative earlier this morning. If, however, we are not going to give them the help and the hand up that they need in order to align their skills with the requirements of business and industry to get opportunities, we cannot move forward. From examples across the border — very close to us — we can see that far more people move into employment if the right connections are in place or built to enable them to do so. I will provide some context for our economy here. Our economy is crying out for an additional 5,000 skilled workers each year just to stand still, yet we are failing our young people and our business community. Alliance therefore tabled this motion as the party of opportunities. We want to see the region flourish. We want people to have opportunities, skills and qualifications. Their not having them is a barrier that must be addressed. Prosperity must be shared. Everybody must be given opportunities to better themselves. Job opportunities, skills and social justice for all must be delivered. As industry moves quickly with the advancement of AI and advanced manufacturing, it is becoming increasingly difficult for our young generation to secure training and employment opportunities, because opportunities are either limited or in high demand. No young person should be left without hope or have their future blocked by barriers, and no business should be held back by a broken skills system. Skills are the foundation of any economy, and an ever-growing skills base is vital if we are to deliver the economic and social transformation that Northern Ireland needs. We have to create opportunities, give hope and fundamentally ensure that we stop leaving young people behind. We must make sure that delivery opens up pathways for young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, empowering them and offering them a better future. We have to remove barriers for people who did not pass GSCE maths and English at the age of 16 to give them a future and enable them to hope for better. This must include people with additional needs. I commend Alma White on the work that she has done with Caleb's Cause to help a generation of young people who also need our support. That is why Alliance is calling for the extension of what already exists in the South and what our local business organisations have been calling for. Let us learn from what works and implement it here. Alliance wants to see the Skillnet Ireland model implemented in Northern Ireland, working together North/South as needed. That is a flexible model that links business and industry with colleges, universities and schools. It is based around a sector or a geographical area. Having a Skillnet Ireland model would enable cross-border, all-island economic cooperation, and, as I said, we should work on a North/South basis to help remove some of the mobility and skills issues that we hear about repeatedly in the Economy Committee and that arise when somebody lives on one side of the border and the business is on the other side, whichever way round it is. We must focus on making sure that we put the appropriate training courses in place to match what industry needs, thus creating opportunities and empowering people. I must note that I am concerned about the approach of the Department for the Economy and the Department of Education to working together in this area. That concern comes from a recent Public Accounts Committee (PAC) investigation into skills, which found complete breakdown in this area, with fragmentation and substantial amounts of money being wasted through duplication. One of the recommendations was about ensuring that funding for further and higher education bodies is directed towards the provision of courses that address the skills need and adapt quickly to provide the growth areas in our economy. By further working with the Department of Education, the Department for the Economy must do more to raise awareness and incentivise the uptake of those courses to reduce the skills gap. What the motion calls for would deliver that specific action and join the work of the two Departments so that we are not wasting money and resources by duplicating different courses at different times for the same people. Local business organisations are calling for that. NI Chamber has been leading the shouts and campaigning for that, and we are calling for it to be implemented right now. I want to give an example of how this would work. I recently met a large IT company in Belfast that employs graduates. Once they are employed, the company has to put them on an intense internal training course for 12 weeks. Why is that? It is because their degree does not cover what the business needs. There are other examples. Businesses tell me all the time that they want to create apprenticeships but do not have a link to a training course in a technical college to enable students to get the qualification that the business needs. What is currently being done needs to be adapted to meet what businesses need. Doing what we have always done will not cut it. The skills gap must be addressed urgently. Businesses are calling for that, and our young people deserve it. Alliance is calling on the Minister for the Economy to establish a talent-developing agency that is modelled on Skillnet Ireland and other proven European approaches. By doing so — this is at the heart of the motion — we will create better opportunities for young people that deliver prosperity and give hope and, ultimately, deliver for our workforce and local employers and raise standards of living for our population.

This is about putting more money into people's pockets, giving them opportunities and allowing them to work in jobs in which they can thrive and grow; a shared future; a reconciled and practical example of a shared island, delivering social justice — integration that delivers better. I cannot support the SDLP amendment, as it changes the call of the motion by removing the extension of Skillnet Ireland to Northern Ireland. I have addressed how it would and should work on an all-island basis. The same system should work, but the amendment simply says that the Minister should pass responsibility to a new body that does not exist. Importantly, there are no plans in the South even to make that body exist, and so the amendment puts ideology in front of the betterment of the people. Alliance wants that betterment right now. Sharing this island is fundamental to me and to Alliance, but it means providing leadership and government here and now to deliver what our young people and business community need right now. That cannot be ignored or bypassed.

1,261 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:16 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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