Launched: 12 August 2024
The challenge
The Beara Peninsula, Ireland's second-largest fishing port, faces economic threats due to Brexit. The 'Brexit Voluntary Permanent Cessation' scheme is expected to decommission a third of its commercial fishing vessels, leading to over 150 job losses and harming the maritime sector. Additionally, the region's smart specialisation assessment highlights a skills gap in blue economy sectors, such as marine technology and aquaculture, which hampers potential growth in offshore renewables and related industries, including boat building, maritime logistics, fisheries support services, and coastal tourism.
The ambition
The 2020 EU strategy on Offshore Renewable Energy highlights the need for educational programmes to attract young workers to this sector by 2050. In response, the Beara Peninsula’s maritime industry has formed a steering group, including regional SMEs, public and private training providers, and local councils. The Beara Peninsula Marine and Offshore Renewable Energy (Beara More) regional skills partnership steering group aims to develop a skills ecosystem in Beara’s geographically isolated coastal and island communities by fostering collaboration between education, industry, and policymakers. Their goal is to attract, train, and retain highly skilled workers, enhancing regional competitiveness and supporting Ireland’s green and digital transition in emerging blue economy sectors.
The commitments
The Beara More regional skills partnership is dedicated to enhancing local and regional skills development by collaborating with stakeholders to address specific needs in smart specialisation sectors. They will perform a skills gap analysis to identify deficiencies, design tailored training programmes with educational institutions, and align these with industry needs. Outreach will target affected fishers and young people to encourage participation, while monitoring and evaluation will ensure programme effectiveness. Additionally, the Partnership will establish a joint strategy to create a comprehensive framework for education, upskilling, and reskilling. This framework will involve stakeholder dialogue, resource identification, and impact monitoring, aiming to boost job attractiveness and retention in the maritime sector. Collaboration with other regions and sectors will support the broader European skills agenda.
Take a look at the Partnership declaration below to find out more:
