The island of Ireland has a more connected labour market than professional bodies have fully harnessed. A Skills Insight Note from the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, titled Cross Border Skills and Commonalities between Ireland and Northern Ireland, maps structural links across workforce participation, sectoral employment, and shared policy priorities. For associations and institutes on the island, the findings represent a strategic opportunity and a planning resource of real value.

The research makes a persuasive case that cross-border collaboration in skills development is both possible and necessary. Three findings define the opportunity: the scale and growth of cross-border working, shared skills priorities across both Programmes for Government, and the high educational profile of workers already crossing the border.

The cross-border labour market is larger and faster-growing than official figures suggest. In 2021 and 2022, 10,541 people travelled from Northern Ireland to work in Ireland, up at least 62% from the 2011 Census, while 7,777 made the reverse commute. ESRI research has established that 75% of cross-border workers hold third-level qualifications, with a large cohort in professional or managerial roles. This is a credentialled, mobile constituency that professional bodies are well placed to serve.

The shared skills priorities are strikingly aligned. Both the Irish and Northern Ireland Programmes for Government identify digitalisation, the green economy, and apprenticeships as priorities, while both economies rely on manufacturing, health, and education as anchor sectors. Employment rates were near identical at approximately 74% in 2024, with labour forces of almost 2.9 million in Ireland and more than 935,000 in Northern Ireland.

The demographic picture strengthens the strategic case. The island of Ireland’s population reached 7.1 million in 2022, the first time it exceeded that figure since 1851, driven by growth of 31% in Ireland and 13% in Northern Ireland over twenty years. As Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke TD observed, the findings underline the importance of skills collaboration as both economies adapt to technological and demographic change.

Three priorities follow for association leaders. First, develop island-wide CPD pathways reflecting cross-border professional mobility, reducing friction in shared recognition of qualifications and credentials. Second, engage with the EGFSN and equivalent Northern Ireland bodies to position professional associations as partners in delivering the shared digitalisation and green economy skills agenda. Third, design joint events and peer networks that genuinely serve members on both sides of the border.

The EGFSN Skills Insight Note makes a data-grounded case that the island of Ireland’s labour market is more integrated than institutional structures currently reflect. For associations and institutes, this is an invitation to lead. Professional bodies that design island-wide capability, recognition, and community structures will serve their members better and help build a cohesive, competitive skills economy across the island.

(The views expressed by the writer are his/her own and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of BusinessRiver.)