Industry and campus are collaborating successfully in Waterford in an expanding programme that is bringing new technical skills and self-development opportunities to shop floor workers.
The links being forged by Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) with local industry are underpinning the growth of the institute and creating a more versatile and multi-skilled workforce in the region.
Craft workers are learning technical and machine-operating skills; clerical personnel are studying modern languages or marketing; managers are attending courses in health and safety or human relations.
The popularity of the growing interaction between campus and workplace is demonstrated by the statistics for one leading employer in the region, Waterford Crystal, which subsidises course fees for its employees.
Nearly 300 of the company's 1,500 employees are currently attending evening or weekend courses at WIT, and by the end of this academic year some 800 crystal workers will have completed certified courses of one kind or another.
Many of the courses chosen by workers are unrelated, or only indirectly related to their jobs. But an increasing number are aimed at retraining skilled manual workers to cope with technological change in the workplace.
'We used to be totally craft (industry), now we're technocraft,' said Senan Cooke, the company's manager of training, development and communications. 'We're using technology in many areas to support the craft skills.'
The company is redeploying a number of glass-blowers to become high-tech machine-operators and technicians. A 10-week course at WIT has just finished: certificates were presented last week.
'WIT came in and looked at our situation and developed a course to suit our operation,' said Mr Cooke. The courses enable workers to expand their portfolio of skills and strengthen their employability, he said.
One of the best aspects, he added, is seeing people who have carried out the same work function for many years being able to redefine themselves with their newly acquired skills.
Engravers, cutters and blowers are still the mainstay of the company, but they are being supplemented by others. And when the handcraft workers redeploy to more technical functions, their original expertise does not go to waste. 'The skills they had as craftsmen are very beneficial to them, because they understand glass, they understand the product,' Mr Cooke said.
As in most large industries, production and processing machines are becoming increasingly sophisticated and require special operating skills. Like other large companies, Waterford Crystal is producing more, with fewer people, and the advances in machine technology can only increase that trend.
The WIT courses introduce the floor production workers to the elements of electronics, pneumatics, robotics and machine maintenance, so that they can move into that area.
Most workers attend these courses on a part-time basis, in the evenings. But there is an urgent need to accelerate the supply of technically qualified workers. Cross-industry studies have identified a serious shortfall in the supply of technicians. The country's technological institutes together produce about 700 each year, but it is calculated that industry will be seeking about 2,000 a year over the next three years.
WIT has been developing courses to meet that need, and industry is responding. Waterford Crystal has just sponsored Ger Grant, a glassblower, to undertake full-time training at the institute. He has been with the company since 1989 and has been involved in all aspects of glass-blowing.
He will be paid his wages by the company while he attends the institute for six months, then returns for six months' in-house training as a technician, followed by a further six months at WIT.
Ger said he always had an interest in engineering, and described his selection for the course as 'a fantastic opportunity'. He believed that with industry changing so fast young workers like him must be prepared to engage in retraining and learning new skills throughout their working lives.
Joe Hayden, head of engineering at WIT, oversees the growing number of courses tailored to suit the training needs of local industry. 'All of the companies now see the need to further educate and train their workforce, because of the changing technology and the increasingly competitive environment,' he said.
WIT has also set out to provide a service to industry at a higher technological level. It operates an 'advanced manufacturing technology research laboratory' and a number of students linked with local industry are studying there for master's degrees.
The institute is also establishing an advanced manufacturing technology training unit which will offer high-level, short training courses for personnel from local industry.
In the IDA's drive to attract new high-tech industry to the south-east region, these important bridges between the local campus and local industry are regarded as a vital part of the incentive package.