Shannon Chamber chief executive Helen Downes pictured with the newly appointed manager of Shannon Chamber Skillnet, Alan Kelly. Photograph by Eamon Ward

SHANNON NATIVE, Alan Kelly has been appointed as manager of Shannon Chamber’s Skillnet network.

Alan is a graduate of Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick with a BA (Hons) in English and Philosophy and an MA Education, specialising in leadership and management, from the University of Bath.

He has been viewed as the best candidate to lead Shannon Chamber’s drive to enhance the skills of Shannon’s and the region’s workforce.

With a background in education in Ireland and overseas, Mr Kelly had dedicated his career to date to developing people and providing them with the opportunities to learn. He has been involved in identifying and facilitating professional development for people at all levels within the organisations he has worked for – ABQ Education Group, Muscat, Oman and Compass Child and Family Service, Ireland.

Announcing the appointment, Shannon Chamber CEO Helen Downes said, “Companies are finding it more difficult to source, secure and retain talent, and have realised that investing in talent development can enhance their competitive advantage. This has resulted in an increasing uptake of the wide range of training programmes we can now offer through our Skillnet network.

“Having a manager that has dedicated his career to education and managed training in varied settings will be a great asset to our network. We delivered 200 online training programmes to 1,000 participants from 250 companies via our Skillnet network in 2021 and the objective is to introduce a hybrid training model whereby we can offer training both on and off-line. We are very focused on delivering the type and level of training that helps employees to gain the relevant knowledge and skills to improve their performance,” she added.