Northern Ireland has approximately 14,000 passenger transport employees, with the majority working in the taxi and private hire industry, followed by the bus and coach industry.  There are 3 airports serving Northern Ireland.

There is a future need for technical/professional and operators in the Northern Ireland sector.  Recruitment difficulties are the result of a shortage of applicants with technical skills.  The majority of companies reported no change in employee numbers (84%), 13% reported an increase in staff numbers and 3% reported a decrease.

A significant proportion of the sector workforce in Northern Ireland has no formal qualifications.  The Northern Ireland sector workforce also has the highest proportion of the workforce without an NVQ Level 2 qualification. 

Companies reported that future skill needs will be for: driving skills (5%); driving instruction (5%); disability awareness (5%); and IT skills (5%).

Workforce statistics:

• 24% working in the sector are self-employed
• 11% of the workforce work part-time
• 68% of the workforce are male
• average of the workforce is 42 years
• younger workforce than the UK passenger transport sector as whole
• 98% of the workforce are white
• 39% of the workforce have an NVQ Level 2 or higher, compared to 54% in the UK
• 34% have no qualifications, compared to 12% for the UK

Employer statistics:

• 6% of  companies report recruitment difficulties
• no companies report retention problems
• 13% of companies provide training for their employees
• 28% found that there was a lack of funding available for training
• 13% reported a lack of suitable courses in the local area

Source: GoSkills national fact sheet 2006 and GoSkills Skills Needs Assessment (stage 1) 2006a

For more data on Northern Ireland’s passenger transport sector see: