Chamber’s Ireland Weekly Digest: 15th May 2017

  1. Call for Apprenticeship Proposals Open until 1st September 2017

The Minister for Education and Skills, Mr Richard Bruton TD and the Minister of State for Skills, Research and Innovation, Mr John Halligan TD recently welcomed the opening of the Apprenticeship Council’s second call for new apprenticeship proposals.

The Department are calling on employers to come forward with apprenticeship proposals. For companies, the skills that will be learned by these apprentices will be invaluable to their future growth plans. They will help exporting companies based in Ireland to scale their business, to grow their exports and to take advantage of the opportunities offered by a global economy. For the apprentice, they will be embedded in enterprises and will get the chance to learn skills and get hands on experience. It will give young people the opportunity to acquire applied, technical skills within a variety of sectors, and provide a very practical grounding which will stand to them as they move through their career and take advantage of promotional opportunities.

13 further new programmes will get under way this year in various sectors such as medical devices, polymer processing, culinary and financial services.  The second call, announced last week, will call for more apprenticeship proposals. The closing date for new Apprenticeship Proposals is 1st September 2017.

See www.apprenticeship.ie for further details.

  1. European Movement Ireland – Citizen’s Dialogue with EU Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis & Mairead McGuiness MEP

EMI would like to invite Chamber members to a free public Citizens’ Dialogues with EU Commissioner Vytenis Andriukaitis & Mairead McGuinness MEP on Health and Food on Monday 22 May in the Printworks, Dublin Castle.

Moderated by RTE Morning Ireland’s Audrey Carville, this Irish Citizens’ Dialogue is part of a series of EU wide Citizens’ Dialogue with the main purpose being for a lively debate and Q&A to take place with delegates, the Commissioners and other speakers.

A wine and networking reception will take place from 16.15 with the dialogue to start at 16.45 to have concluded by 18.15. 

Due to a high level of demand anticipated please email RSVP to events@europeanmovement.ie by 18th May.  Visit European Movement for more information

  1. Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs

Please find attached a fact-sheet on the COSME programme Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs. Further, please also note that there is currently an open call for Call for Proposals for the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme which you can find here- https://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/cos-eye-2017-4-01-erasmus-young-entrepreneurs

Deadline for electronic submission-7 June 2017 17.00 hours (CET)

The aim of this call is to expand and strengthen the existing network of Intermediary Organisations (IOs) which act as local contact points for newly and experienced entrepreneurs in the participating countries. IOs will be selected to implement the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme at local level for the period February 2018-January 2020. They will, in particular, recruit and assist the entrepreneurs who will benefit from the programme. This call will therefore support actions for organisations enhancing and facilitating the mobility of entrepreneurs.

Note that interested entities must apply as part of a consortium of at least 5 partners from min. 4 different participating countries (COSME countries). Consortia must match min. 100 entrepreneurs and the maximum funding that they can apply for in this call is €500,000 (max. of total eligible costs; including up to 75% of programme management costs and up to 100% of budget reserved for new entrepreneurs).

  1. InterTrade Ireland Workshops – Water Industry – Know-How To Tender Successfully

Please find attached flyer on the InterTradeIreland Workshops across Ireland in May – June to help companies in the water industry (repair & maintenance) supply chain with the process of understanding and responding to a PQQ. Irish Water plan to go out to the marketplace to establish a Framework for Repairs and Maintenance  in 2017.

It will involve opportunities in relation to all areas of maintenance and repair:

o    Civil Engineering, Building and Repair

o    Mechanical and Electrical Works,

o    Instrumentation, Control and Automation