How Skillnet Networks Commission Training Providers

Most writing about Skillnet Ireland is addressed to employers: join a network, access co-funded training. Far less is written about the other side of the transaction. Somebody has to deliver the programmes the networks fund, and the way a provider gets onto that list is not obvious from the outside. There are two routes, they work very differently, and the one most providers never find is the one with published rules and fixed dates. Our CPD course library sets out what we deliver and how it is certified.

Where the money sits

Skillnet Ireland is funded from the National Training Fund, the pot financed by the 1% employer levy. The Comptroller and Auditor General's audited figures for 2022 record EUR 51.2 million flowing to Skillnet Ireland's Training Networks Programme, the large majority of it for training people already in employment rather than jobseekers.

That matters for a provider, because it tells you what the networks are buying. This is upskilling for working professionals, commissioned by enterprise-led networks on behalf of their member companies. It is not a jobseeker programme wearing a different name.

Route one: the network manager

Skillnet operates through business networks, each with a network manager who identifies member companies' skills needs and commissions programmes to meet them. There is no central approved-provider register to join, which surprises people who expect one. The networks are enterprise-led and relationship-driven, and a network manager has real discretion over what gets run.

Several networks are aimed squarely at accountancy and finance, including networks run with or by the Irish accountancy bodies and others focused on international financial services and sustainable finance. For a provider with relevant content, a direct approach to the right network manager with a specific programme proposal is a legitimate and often faster route than waiting for a procurement notice.

The proposal that lands is the one that names a skills gap the network's members actually have, rather than offering a catalogue. Network managers are commissioning to a need they have already identified, so the useful opening is evidence that you understand it.

Route two: the open panel competition

This is the route hardly anyone writes about. Individual networks run their own public procurement competitions to establish panels of training providers, and those notices appear on eTenders like any other public contract.

A real example shows the shape of it. Midland Border East Skillnet published an open-procedure notice in October 2024 to establish a panel of training providers to deliver training and upskilling to its network members, with a tender deadline the following month. The notice was a single lot, carried a main CPV code of 80533100 (computer training services) alongside additional codes covering management, safety, environmental and personal development training, and recorded the contract as part-financed by the European Social Fund Plus.

Two details in that are worth absorbing. First, panel membership is what makes a provider commissionable in a structured way, so it is a gate rather than a sale. Second, the CPV coding is misleading if you read it literally: a panel covering management and professional development training sits under a computer training services code, which means a keyword search for accountancy or finance will never surface it.

Why most providers miss the notices

If the main CPV code on a training panel is 80533100, then an eTenders alert tuned to subject keywords is the wrong instrument. The alerts that work are set against contracting authority and CPV code, not topic. Each network company is its own contracting authority, which means a provider serious about this route subscribes to the individual networks it cares about rather than hoping a generic alert catches them.

Networks also re-tender on cycles rather than continuously, often every few years, so a missed competition can mean a long wait. The practical implication is the same as for the SOLAS eCollege framework: preparation happens before the notice, not after it.

What to have ready

Public competitions turn on standard procurement material as much as on content quality. Before a notice appears, have current financial statements, insurance certificates, data protection documentation, tutor CVs with verifiable qualifications, and referees who have agreed in advance to be contacted. Tutor credentials in particular are commonly scored, and assembling them under deadline is where bids come apart.

Beyond the paperwork, be able to evidence delivery: completion rates, learner feedback, and certification. Networks are accountable for outcomes to Skillnet Ireland, which is in turn accountable for the levy money, so a provider who can report cleanly is solving a problem the network already has.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a national approved-provider list for Skillnet?

No. There is no central register. Providers are engaged either directly by individual networks or through panel competitions run by those networks.

Does a provider have to be Irish?

Panel competitions are public procurement exercises run under EU rules, so they are open to providers established in other member states that meet the stated conditions. The commercial reality is that a network commissions for its own members, so relevance to those companies matters more than location.

Can a provider sit on more than one network's panel?

Yes. Each network runs its own competition, so panel memberships are separate and a provider can hold several.

How is Skillnet different from the ETB route?

Skillnet is enterprise-led and commissions programmes through networks of member companies. The SOLAS and ETB supports are delivered through the statutory further education system, with different eligibility rules and a different accreditation expectation.