Ireland West Airport wins Regional Excellence Award
Ireland West Airport were delighted to win the ‘Skillnet Regional Excellence Award’ at the Sligo Chamber Of Commerce annual Business Excellence Awards on Friday night. The Skillnet Regional Excellence Award, sponsored by Sligo Chamber Skillnet, was for businesses engaged in staff training programmes. The award recognises the airport’s commitment to staff upskilling and investment in personnel development.
As a major employer in the region with nearly 200 staff, Ireland West Airport is committed to ensuring that the airport is a positive and inclusive environment for both passengers and staff. We are proud to have staff employed at the airport from across the West and Northwest of Ireland, as well as from EU and non-EU countries, bringing diversity in skills, backgrounds, and ideas. The airport supports flexible working and, on an annual basis, facilitates students from schools and colleges across the region to provide valuable work experience with programmes such as the Transition Year work experience programme. With the help of Sligo Chamber Skillnet, the airport delivered training in disability and diversity awareness to managers and staff and introduced the role of Support Contact Person for staff.
With the support of Sligo Chamber and Skillnet, training in digitalisation has enabled the airport to expand its social media presence and gain expertise in developing digital technology platforms, thereby enhancing the service offering for our customers. It has provided opportunities for staff to pursue further education, which has further improved the knowledge base and expertise of our workforce, and in addition supported training in the areas of management development, sales and technical specialisations.
Commenting on the award, Joe Gilmore, Managing Director, Ireland West Airport, said, ‘We are absolutely delighted to have won the Regional Excellence award from Sligo Chamber of Commerce. With the support of Sligo Chamber and Skillnet, we have undertaken training and development across all disciplines, which has grown our capabilities, facilitated organisational change, supported the personal development of staff, and ultimately enabled us to develop our business and invest in and retain our staff. We have an excellent and long-established working relationship with the team in Sligo Chamber of Commerce and have benefited from their advice, connections, and their administration and look forward to continuing to work closely with them into the future’.