To ask the Minister for Employment and Learning how his Department is working with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to assess the skills need of companies based outside of Belfast and Londonderry.

Meeting the skills needs of employers remains crucial to ensuring a strong and vibrant economy in Northern Ireland.

My Department works closely with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI) and its related non-Departmental public bodies to ensure that programmes offered are complementary and provide a service to employers across Northern Ireland that meets their skills needs, helping them to increase their productivity and competitiveness.This is clearly demonstrated by the close working relationship my Department has with Invest Northern Ireland, across a range of common interests. Examples of this are shared work on research, management and leadership needs and also the Assured Skills programme which works in collaboration with indigenous and foreign direct investment companies throughout Northern Ireland to deliver the skills they need. DETI is also represented on the Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering Services, Food and Drink Industry and Information and Communications Technology Working Groups which I chair. These groups include employers, further and higher education representatives, officials and others with relevant interests. They provide a valuable forum through which employers from across Northern Ireland can articulate their skills needs and interact directly with service and programme providers.

In addition, my Department is directly engaged with DETI on a wide range of policy and strategic matters with a Northern Ireland-wide focus, including the Executive’s Economic Strategy, the Innovation Strategy and the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) Strategy. My Department also works closely with DETI on the gathering and interpretation of key statistical data, for example, on labour market information. Both Departments are also heavily engaged in preparations for the creation of the Department of the Economy.

A range of both formal and informal meetings is in place to ensure proper co-ordination of activity between both Departments. These range from strategic liaison meetings between senior officials to regular operational oversight meetings on particular issues through to day-to-day liaison between individual branches.