Education is essential to ensuring knock-on economic benefits of remote working can be felt across Ireland.
The potential for remote working to contribute to sustainable regional development and support local communities is being underpinned by new training courses.
Organisations that include IDA Ireland, Grow Remote, Solas and the Laois Offaly Education & Training Board (LOETB) have devised two courses in response to the current crisis.
“It enables employers to broaden their talent pool and access talent and skills across all of Ireland’s regions”
While Covid-19 has ushered in a new remote working reality across Ireland, the need to ensure that workers and their managers have the professional skills to do so effectively is of vital importance.
Two new online national training programmes that develop the capability and capacity of current remote workers, line managers and those wishing to become remote workers have been created.
Both programmes are available online and are of seven weeks duration with additional time allocated to facilitate the completion of ICDL and submission of assessment material.
The courses are:
- Remote Work Ready is aimed at employees and unemployed people hoping to transition to a remote working role and is fully funded.
- Leading Remote Teams is aimed at line managers leading a team that includes remote workers. Note the managers time commitment to the programme will represent the entire company contribution to programme costs.
This is the modern world
Asked about the origins of the programmes, IDA Ireland’s divisional head of Regional Business Development Denis Curran explained: “It was very much a team approach to the initiative, with local and national stakeholders coming together to develop the courses. Many of our FDI (foreign direct investment) client base are implementing new and innovative approaches to the future of work.
“Remote working is a growing feature of the modern work environment and IDA has been engaged with clients on implementing remote working solutions for the past number of years.”
Curran pointed out that many of the world’s leading practitioners of remote working, including Shopify and GrandPad, have established operations in Ireland with great success.
“We are also seeing an increasing number of companies embracing remote working to scale their operations here. It enables employers to broaden their talent pool and access talent and skills across all of Ireland’s regions.
“Their search for talent is not confined to any specific location. For employees it creates new, exciting career opportunities regardless of where they live. We view remote working as positive way of working for both the employer and the employee and would encourage anyone interested in remote working to considering participating in the courses,” said Curran.
Written by John Kennedy (john.kennedy3@boi.com)
Published: 5 May, 2020
