Press Release
8 March 2002

Meeting of the Economic Development Forum – 8 March 2002, at North Down and Ards Institute of Further & Higher Education, Bangor Campus.

Brian Turtle, Director of North Down & Ards Institute of Further & Higher Education, this morning welcomed members of the Economic Development Forum to the Institute’s Bangor Campus for their 11th meeting.  The Forum provides advice to Ministers on matters affecting the development and future competitiveness of the Northern Ireland economy and is attended by representatives of the major social partner organisations.

Sir Reg Empey, MLA, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment and Chairman of the Forum, was delighted at the opportunity for members to see at first hand the excellent work of the further education sector in supporting economic development in Northern Ireland and undertaking activities of direct relevance to local businesses.

“The crucial role to be played by the education sector in securing a robust economy for Northern Ireland simply cannot be overemphasised” said Sir Reg in thanking Mr Turtle for hosting the meeting.  The Minister added, “The Executive’s Programme for Government recognizes the vital role of education and training in supporting economic development and prosperity and the need to develop and strengthen the existing links between the education system and the world of work.  Members of the Forum are equally persuaded of the importance of strengthening such links and have reflected this in their work to develop a set of medium-term strategic priorities for the NI economy for the period to 2010 which we discussed at today’s meeting.”

Carmel Hanna, MLA, attending her first meeting of the Forum in her role as Minister for Employment and Learning, welcomed the development of the medium-term strategic priorities and stressed the particular interest of her Department in equipping the workforce with appropriate skills to meet the needs of the economy.  Mrs Hanna also updated members on the work of the Taskforce on Employability and Long-Term Unemployment.
Members of the Forum took the opportunity to provide feedback on two key documents issued recently for public consultation – the DETI draft Corporate Plan and DRD’s Regional Transportation Strategy.

NOTES FOR EDITORS 

The membership of the Economic Development Forum is as follows:

Chairman

Sir Reg Empey
Minister DETI

Deputy Chairman

Bruce Robinson
Permanent Secretary, DETI

Minister DRD

Peter Robinson

Minister DEL

Carmel Hanna

  

  

Organisation

Member

CBI

Mark Ennis

CforC

Bob Barbour

IOD

Denis Rooney

NICCI

Stephen Kingon

  

  

Londonderry Chamber of Commerce

John McDaid

NIC/ICTU

Patricia McKeown

Jim McCusker

Peter Bunting

   

  

Higher Education

John Hughes

Further Education

Raymond Mullan

  

  

NICVA

Jacqueline Irwin

Seamus McAleavey

  

  

UFU

Will Taylor

NIAPA

Lawrence Smyth

  

  

SOLACE

Michael McGuckin

North Down and Ards Institute of Further & Higher Education

North Down and Ards Institute has 4 sites across North Down, situated in Bangor, Holywood, Newtownards and Ballyboley.  The Institute, with an annual turnover of £11million, has a student enrolment of 15,000 with 953 higher education students, and 170 full-time, and 200 part-time teaching staff.  There are three recognised Centres of Excellence at the Institute covering Electronics, Manufacturing Engineering and Information & Communication Technologies.  The Institute has also received special recognition in the area of Creative Technology.