Small and medium sized companies here are struggling to find adequately skilled individuals to fill a variety of roles, a Chambers Ireland Skills Gap survey has found.
Nine in ten respondents said they were facing significant challenges in recruiting employees with the right skills and qualifications.
Chambers Ireland conducted the survey to coincide with the end of the Government’s consultation on critical skills and employment permits which closes today.
Over 400 firms participated in the survey with the skills gap found to be most acute among micro-businesses – generally defined as firms with fewer than 10 employees.
95% of respondents in this category said they encountering skills gaps.
Over half of small businesses have found customer facing roles challenging to fill.
For two-thirds of medium-sized enterprises, management positions were the most difficult to recruit for, the survey found.
“While it is beyond the scope of the employment lists review, our members are calling on government to simplify the permitting and visa process. There should be a single application process for both, and we need fewer, broader permits, not new classes of them,” Chambers Ireland’s chief executive Ian Talbot said.
“Chambers Ireland greatly welcomes the increased resources that the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment have allocated to permits, but this needs to be coordinated with quicker, more flexible visa processing within the Department of Justice,” he added.
Article Source: SMEs struggling to fill skills gap – Chambers Ireland – Brian Finn – RTE
