To say that times have changed for F┴S is an understatement. When the organisation was founded in 1988, unemployment was struggling to slip out of double-digit percentage rates and the Republic's young people were still emigrating in their thousands, few giving a thought to ever returning.

The mission for F┴S was clear: the nation needed to be trained so that the pattern of slippage wouldn't continue. More than 10 years on, an examination of the labour market would suggest that the policy has worked.

While the more stable job market has its roots in bigger things than F┴S, it's certain that the services provided by the organisation contributed to the solution.

Unemployment, although currently rising, is low, with just 154,000 people signing on the dole. Problematic emigration has come full circle, with attention focusing on people coming into the country rather than leaving.

While the new picture has its faults, it's undeniably a more positive one than the situation F┴S faced upon its foundation.

Rather than patting itself on the back over a job well done, however, F┴S is confronting a problem: its own future. The agency needs to find a new role now that the old issues aren't so problematic any more.

"In the 1980s, unemployment was at 17 per cent, and our remit was to find jobs for our people," says F┴S spokesman, Mr Gregory Craig. "Now, there are half a million more people in work and there are fewer people looking for work."

This has meant F┴S has had to look at services: upskilling the current workforce and continually investing in training. In other words, the focus on F┴S's efforts is changing from the unemployed to those people already in work. F┴S has reached the next level in the development of the Irish workforce.

This fundamental change was reflected in an analysis document published last week. The Statement of Strategy 2002-2005 identifies a number of priority goals, all of which range around a new identity and new market positioning. Phrases such as "investment in training" and "a comprehensive range of services, for employers and those in employment" are at the root of the change.

F┴S will now concentrate on providing services to three main groups: jobseekers, apprentices or trainees, and employees or companies that could benefit from upskilling. The jobseekers in question need not necessarily be long-term unemployed people but individuals who are already in work and could progress further with additional training.

In this light, F┴S is likely to make night courses more widely available so those in employment are free to take them up.

"It's about people moving beyond being qualified apprentices to becoming engineers, for example," says Mr Craig.

From its perspective, F┴S will be paying greater heed to the commercial viability of these courses, he says.

In practical terms, the shift in focus will become apparent through efforts such as encouraging employers to consider training staff for the first time or the expansion of part-time learning for staff who may not have viewed themselves as promotion material in the past.

Technology skills are likely to be significant here, says Mr Craig, who argues that simple issues such as teaching photographers how to use digital cameras could transform working lives.

F┴S is also spearheading a campaign to encourage the study of science among young people by inviting a group of astronauts to address students and graduates.

"When things pick up next year, it's important that we have the workforce we need," he says, in recognition of an economic picture that has become much less positive in recent months. This is reflected in the dissolution, earlier this year, of the F┴S JobsIreland initiative, which saw representatives of the organisation travel around the world, seeking to attract immigrant workers to the Republic.

In a less open jobs market, such efforts are no longer so relevant, says Mr Craig.

"We finished up in Moscow a while ago and we've taken our foot a little bit off the pedal since," says Mr Craig. "Our own people are coming first. We don't want to go back to the spectre of long-term unemployment."