A new website has been launched that aims to give Northern Ireland employers a clear view of the entire education, employment and skills landscape.

The talentmap site and its associated online tools are designed to help employers navigate the maze of education, employment and skills programmes across the UK to find the publicly-funded help and support they need.

Talentmap uses state-of-the-art technology to search education, employment and skills-related sites and returns the most relevant information to the user. The web-tool will start by searching around 100 main sites with more being added as time goes on.

It has been developed with employers for employers, supported by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and a coalition of partners including representatives from business organisations and government.

Bill McGinnis, Northern Ireland adviser on Employment and Skills and Northern Ireland Commissioner, said: “In Northern Ireland and throughout the UK our one natural resource is our people. We need to be good at discovering and developing every ounce of individual and collective capability in our people.

“There is a huge amount of help and support available for employers, often free of charge, but it’s not always easy to find.

“By ‘hiding the wiring’ in the system, talentmap offers a simple joined-up view that helps employers to understand what they can do across the education, employment and skills systems and allows them to search for help and sources of funding from key organisations.”

Employment Minister Sir Reg Empey also welcomed the talentmap project and congratulated UKCES for making this technology available within a short time.

“I am sure it will be of great benefit to employers and indeed anyone interested in finding out more about what is available in education, employment and skills throughout the UK,” he said.

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Sir Mike Rake, Chairman of BT and the UK Commission for Employment and Skills added: “In a recession, employers know that it is the talent and skills of the people they employ that will help them survive now, and then thrive as the economy recovers.

“Now is absolutely the time to invest in the talent and skills of our people. If talentmap can help more employers, public and private, large and small, to do more now then we will all reap the rewards.”

sross@belfasttelegraph.co.uk