Debate contribution: Skills Gaps between Young People and Businesses

Debate contribution by Ms Cara Hunter on 30 September 2025.

MLA

Ms Cara Hunter

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour 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 5142970

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. The SDLP firmly believes that young people are the foundation of our future and must have access to the right skill sets to help them and our businesses to prosper. Upskilling the thousands of young people across NI is key to unlocking and creating a stronger and more resilient economy across the North. I welcome the opportunity to wind up on our amendment, which strikes at the heart of the future of our economy here and the urgent need to address the skills gap and uplift the lives and minds of our young people. For years, I, like many, have watched family members, cousins, friends and school classmates move to Australia, America, Canada and beyond to seek opportunities, job vacancies, higher wages and easier access to upskilling and learning. Those people all love where they are from and are proud to be from the North, but they cannot see themselves building a life here for themselves or their families due to a number of contributing factors from rising childcare costs to the cost of living. For many, it is also about the challenge of accessing a university course that they desperately want to do here at home. Our young people face many challenges, and the duty is on us to figure out how we can keep them at home and help them prosper. It is important to highlight the need for regional balance, which many Members in the House have mentioned. The benefits of growth belong to us all. I feel strongly, as does my colleague Sinéad McLaughlin, that not enough is being done to achieve regional balance, with a particular focus, of course, on the north-west, which is greatly felt by our constituents.

I will move quickly on to other Members' contributions. David Honeyford made an important point, which is that we must all look to our future and not back at our past to ensure that our young people have access to opportunities and, more importantly, that they feel empowered. Moreover, both he and the Minister mentioned AI, so I feel it necessary to declare an interest, as I do an hour a month of consultancy work on AI ethics. Other comments from across the House included those from Pádraig Delargy, who said that it is vital that we acknowledge that work is being done by our schools and universities but that there is more left to do. Phillip Brett detailed something very important, which is that many people feel that it is not what you know but who you know. I do not think that any of us in the House backs that kind of environment. It is not fair, and it is not what we want to see. We want our young people to feel empowered, to have the necessary skill set and to have access to opportunities based on merit and education. Diana Armstrong from the UUP stated that greater collaboration is needed between the Minister of Education and the Minister for the Economy on these matters, and we wholeheartedly agree. I will briefly touch on our amendment. We do not seek to be pedantic, but we feel that it really reinforces the need for collaboration and connection, given the mutual benefit on an all-island basis and given that our lives, our families, our employment and our opportunities do not recognise a border. For example, if people live in Newry, and there is access to jobs or opportunities in Drogheda or Dundalk, or if there is a skills gap, we feel that our approach through the amendment will assist in addressing such issues. To conclude, the SDLP calls on the Economy Minister to work closely with her counterparts on the island to ensure that we close the skills gap and give each and every young person across the North the best opportunity to build a life for themselves right here at home, whether that is north or south of the border.

662 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

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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