A Monaghan councillor believes opportunities within the apprenticeship and traineeship sectors should be "advocated" and "promoted" as widely as possible across the entire region.
In relation to housing improvement grants, Cllr Pat Treanor reported that almost €2m worth of works are at a recommended stage across Co Monaghan.
Cllr Treanor says the SEAI (Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland) have some good retrofitting schemes, however there is a two year waiting list because of a skilled labour shortage.
Speaking to Northern Sound, Cllr Treanor believes that this issue is something that Monaghan County Council could address in working partnership with the ETB. The Sinn Fein representative hopes that the shortage in skilled workers is "dealt with" in a reasonable time frame.
"Cavan Monaghan ETB put on apprenticeships and also traineeships, and we need to be advocating and promoting them as widely as we can," he explained.
"There has been a tendency in our secondary level education to put students on to university and unfortunately many of those young, well-trained people do not come back to our county and we lose them.
"These apprenticeships are demand led so we need to try and create the demand there so that the apprenticeships around the necessary trades, that they are facilitated by the ETB but also that there is a demand for it and that young people decide to go that route to develop their professional future."
