DATE: Wednesday 8th October 2025
TIME: 9am – 3:15pm
VENUE: The Burrendale Hotel, Newcastle
COST: FREE TO ATTEND (Members & Non-Members)
EVENT OVERVIEW:
Register to attend this year’s NMD Recruitment & Skills Conference which will take place on Wednesday 8th October in The Burrendale Hotel, Newcastle aimed at meeting Newry, Mourne and Down’s Workforce Challenges.
This is the second of two FREE District-wide major conferences over a 12-month period following on from the first highly successful conference in the Canal Court Hotel, Newry last October.
The NMD Recruitment & Skills Conference is organised by Newry Chamber of Commerce & Trade in partnership with Newry, Mourne and Down Labour Market Partnership (LMP).
Funded by the Department for Communities, Labour Market Partnerships create targeted employment action plans for council areas, allowing for collaboration at local and regional level to support people towards and into work.
The conference is also supported by Southern Regional College (SRC), South Eastern Regional College (SERC), Ulster University (UU) and Queen’s University Belfast (QUB).
Addressing recruitment and skills shortages is one of the biggest challenges facing the local business community across the entirety of the District. Businesses, education and training providers and policymakers are encouraged to attend this year’s conference and play a significant role in further shaping and developing a Labour Market Strategy for the District over the next decade and beyond.
The presentations, panel discussions and interactive roundtable discussions will focus on continuing to build on the huge quantity of feedback from businesses, education and training providers and policymakers at last year’s conference and the work that has been done over the last 12 months on the back of that, to develop bespoke solutions to the Workforce Challenge of the next decade and beyond as businesses across every sector of our local economy struggle to recruit and retain staff.
The full line-up of expert speakers for this FREE District-wide full day conference will be announced in the coming days and it will be hosted by MC, Broadcaster & Journalist, Mark Simpson.
Newry Chamber will also be putting on a complimentary bus for businesses located in the Greater Newry Area. The bus will be leaving The Stone Bridge in Newry at 8am and will return to Newry after the conference in The Burrendale Hotel has concluded.
If you would like to reserve a spot on the bus for you and/or your colleagues, please email admin@newrychamber.com. Please note, spaces on the bus are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.