Newry Chamber’s NMD Recruitment & Skills Conference 2025 is a huge success
Over 150 delegates from across the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council Area attended the highly successful ‘NMD Recruitment & Skills Conference’ on Wednesday October 8, hosted by broadcaster and journalist, Mark Simpson in the Burrendale Hotel, Newcastle.
This was the second of two free District-wide major conferences over a 12-month period following on from the first highly successful conference in the Canal Court Hotel, Newry last October.
The NMD Recruitment & Skills Conference was organised by Newry Chamber of Commerce & Trade in partnership with Newry, Mourne and Down Labour Market Partnership (LMP). The conference was also supported by Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, Southern Regional College, South Eastern Regional College, Queen’s University and Ulster University.
Funded by the Department for Communities, Labour Market Partnerships create targeted employment action plans for council areas, allowing for collaboration at local and regional level to support people towards and into work.
Addressing recruitment and skills shortages is one of the biggest challenges facing the local business community across the district and it was fantastic to see so many businesses, education and training providers and policymakers in attendance at this year’s conference, playing their part in helping to shape and develop a Labour Market Strategy for the District.
The continuing theme of the conference was, ‘Meeting the District’s Workforce Challenge’ and delegates heard a mix of presentations, panel discussions and participated in interactive roundtable discussions to provide a huge quantity of valuable feedback which will be collated along with the feedback from last year’s conference to develop bespoke solutions to the Workforce Challenge of the next decade and beyond as businesses across every sector of our local economy struggle to recruit and retain staff.
The panel discussions covered three key areas including: Promoting Economic Inclusion & Championing Diversity in the Workplace; The Pathway to a Career & The NI Curriculum; Attracting & Developing Talent
Edwina Flynn, President of Newry Chamber commented: “The conference was all about continuing the much-needed conversation about how we can all collaborate to devise a locally focused strategy that meets the 21st century skills and recruitment needs of the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council businesses.
“Newry Chamber is delighted to be involved in the organisation and delivery of this very important conference as one of the Chamber’s Core Strategic Pillars is Tackling the Workforce Challenges of the Greater Newry Area.
“The conference is about collaboration, about coming together to develop a strategy aimed at tackling the growing challenges in our labour market and the struggles businesses face in filling vacancies across this region.
“Sincere thanks to our partners, Newry, Mourne and Down District Council, Newry Mourne and Down Labour Market Partnership, Southern Regional College, South Eastern Regional College, Queen’s University and Ulster University for all their support in making the Conference possible and to our speakers and panellists who contributed to an exceptional event.”
Chairperson of Newry, Mourne and Down District, Cllr. Philip Campbell said: “This year’s Recruitment & Skills Conference once again demonstrated the power of collaboration between business, education and government in addressing the workforce challenges across our District.
“The discussions around inclusion, career pathways and upskilling have provided fresh insight and renewed momentum for how we can collectively strengthen our local economy.”