Being the boss used to be more straightforward. But today, technological innovation means business leaders need to stay on top of constant change. Not only that, now managers also need to lead one of the biggest changes facing the entire global workforce: the necessity to hold down a full-time job while also being engaged in a lifetime of ongoing learning.
Across multiple sectors, employers are rethinking what effective management looks like, and education providers are responding.
“The skills required of business leaders are evolving rapidly in response to technological change and shifting workplace demands,” says Mia Finnegan, public affairs manager at Dublin Chamber.
That change is influencing investment decisions across Irish businesses.
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“Dublin Chamber’s recent Business Outlook Survey found that 66 per cent of businesses plan to invest in leadership and management training, highlighting the growing importance employers are placing on adaptable leadership skills in a rapidly changing business environment,” Finnegan says.
Solas, Ireland’s further education and training (FET) agency, is a key player in this changed environment.
Noreen Fitzpatrick is acting head of branding, communications and FET strategy at Solas. She also holds a role as manager in the enterprise, employees and skills unit. She says FET has grown significantly in the past decade.
“There has been an increase in the demand for skills such as leadership. According to data from our Skills and Labour Market Research Unit (SLMRU), leadership skills are one of the most requested transversal skills in online job ads. Combined, ‘leadership’, ‘leading others’ and ‘leading a team’ accounted for nearly 40 per cent of all job ads in 2025, up from 33 per cent in 2024.”
The demand for these skills is concentrated in managerial and professional roles, she says, but it is widening.
“SLMRU’s recruitment agency survey highlighted the importance of soft skills, including communication, project management and negotiation skills,” says Fitzpatrick.
“For certain specialised senior roles, such as those in engineering and ICT sectors, job-specific expertise combined with leadership qualities such as strong communication, negotiation or project management skills, are a requirement.”
Fitzpatrick says FET can help address these changing requirements.
“A significant and growing cohort of people in employment are using FET to upskill and reskill, with over 127,000 starters since the 2019 launch of the national Skills to Advance initiative.
“The courses are designed to help businesses adapt to the rapidly changing world of work, advances in technology and our commitments to tackling climate change.”
Crucially, micro-qualifications allow participants to learn at their own pace.
“They provide greater flexibility and accessibility for working employees and SMEs and enable incremental upskilling, allowing learners to build competence over time and progress at their own pace,” says Fitzpatrick.
For employers, meanwhile, the benefit lies in speed and precision.
“Targeted upskilling in a short time frame supports SMEs to be agile and responsive to labour market needs.”
Skills to Advance, run by Solas, is for leaders who can operate across different functions of an organisation.
“There’s a strong focus on adaptive leadership capability, including change management, digital awareness and decision making in uncertain environments,” says Fitzpatrick. “The eCollege platform is another part of the picture for leadership and management skills, with education delivered through flexible, open-access, industry-certified courses.”
Fitzpatrick says leadership demand is shifting decisively. Capabilities such as “digital fluency, data-informed decision making, adaptability, and the ability to lead through ambiguity and continuous change are now critical”.
She says there is also growing emphasis on “communication, collaboration, ethical judgment, and supporting workforce resilience in the context of AI adoption”.
The challenge is not just technical, however. A survey from the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) found that Irish workplaces are struggling to keep up with the rapid rise of AI, with only 19 per cent of organisations reporting that bosses are fully equipped to lead in an AI-driven environment.
The findings are contained in the annual HR Practices in Ireland study from the CIPD, carried out in conjunction with the Kemmy Business School at University of Limerick.
According to Alison Hodgson, country director at the CIPD, 91 per cent of organisations continue to experience skills shortages.
“The big skills have got to be in two buckets,” she says. “One is line management and people management, a real issue across sectors, and the second is around critical thinking.”
For Hodgson, the most important skill may be the ability to learn.
“The ultimate skill we all need is learnability,” she says. “The pace of change is so fast that tech platforms and systems come and go at such a pace that we all need to be able to learn, unlearn what was learned and relearn.”
This, she says, is where the education system still has work to do.
“We all need to know how to learn, and that is one of the biggest concerns for every employer – that in the education system we are almost taught answers but not how to think and learn, and they are very different.”
Learning for managers, she says, has to be 24/7 now, and can be generated by employers rather than traditional course providers. People are turning to AI and even YouTube to learn the skills they need, or to cover specific gaps.
“Today, learning for managers is about having learning models that are accessible anytime anywhere and that means microlearning, microcredentials, learner-generated content,” she says.
“Learning from peers is one of the best ways to learn.”
The message from employers is equally clear: formal credentials still matter, but they are no longer enough. In the end, the best managers of the future may simply be the best learners.
Case study: Developing management skills for health professionals
At the Royal College of Surgeons University of Medicine and Health Sciences (RCSI), the emphasis is on helping healthcare professionals keep pace with change.
Sara McDonnell, executive director and head of RCSI Online, says the sector needs leaders who can “lead, navigate and deliver change within evolving healthcare systems”.
“The fast-moving nature of the industry quickly renders skills obsolete: many healthcare professionals have CPD [continuing professional development] requirements, and employers are keenly focused on CVs and LinkedIn profiles that demonstrate ongoing growth and development.”
RCSI’s response has been to make its programmes faster to update and easier to access.
“Because much of our postgraduate leadership and management offering is delivered online, we can move very quickly to respond to the sector’s demands,” says McDonnell.
“Theory, learning resources, curricula, assessment methodology and research constantly evolve because this is practical, real-world education, focused above all else on patient outcomes.”
AI is now part of that redesign.
“AI is increasingly central to discussions across healthcare education and workforce development,” she says, and RCSI’s free AI in Healthcare CPD course, led by radiologist Dr John Sheehan, is meant to act as “a gateway to the wider topic”.
McDonnell says employers want both breadth and specialism.
“It’s possible to give them both. Employers want their organisations to work better,” she says.
“The MSc in Healthcare Management is designed to build big-picture skills while also helping learners think about who you are, what you do and where you want to go.”
That programme also brings people together across professions.
“Doctors alongside administrators and lab workers, nurses alongside pharma and regulatory professionals” study together for the first time in their careers, she says, and that reflects how healthcare systems work in practice.
The same thinking lies behind RCSI’s shorter courses and microcredentials. “Not everyone needs or wants to do that deep dive alongside work and family commitments,” says McDonnell. The university has therefore developed “a suite of microcredentials and CPD courses” that are “sharply focused on problem solving”, including Leadership and Management Essentials and Foundations of Digital Health.
“In a growing population, healthcare sectors will always demand ‘more’ or ‘better’ – more patients, better safety, more productivity, better efficiency – and we can deliver that,” she concludes.
