Apprenticeship Action Plan Launch 2025
This week, the Economy Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald launched the Apprenticeship Action Plan which aims to improve, grow, and make apprenticeships more inclusive across Northern Ireland. The plan focuses on: Improving the apprenticeship system to make it more...
Northern Ireland Labour Market Report- August Update published
Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency (NISRA) have published their quarterly Labour Market Report and it shows a slight softening in the labour market overall, with the unemployment rate rising to 2.4% in April–June 2025—a statistically significant...
Don’t Miss Free Business Advice Clinics Across Northern Ireland
Invest NI, in partnership with local stakeholders, is running a series of business advice clinics to support companies across Northern Ireland. The clinics are designed to give businesses practical advice on how to innovate, export, and stay competitive. Attendees...
Shape the Future of Cross-Border Trade – Join Intertrade Ireland’s Technical Trade Forum
InterTradeIreland has launched the Technical Trade Forum. The Forum is a collaborative platform developed to tackle pressing cross-border trade challenges. The Forum brings businesses together with policymakers to create practical, actionable solutions that will...
Government Supply Expo – 11th November 2025
The Office of Government Procurement (OGP) are partnering up with InterTradeIreland to host the Government Supply Expo 2025: Pathways to Public Tendering, taking place on the 11th of November at the Aviva Stadium. This event will be a huge opportunity for networking,...
Submitting Entry Summary (ENS) declaration from 1 September 2025 – key information you need to provide to your haulier or logistics provider
If your business sends goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland (NI) by parcels or freight via roll-on/roll-off ferry, you need to be aware of new arrangements for entry summary declarations (ENS) under the Import Control System 2 (ICS2). Background ICS2 is the...
Fully funded environmental mentoring support for micro/ small manufacturing businesses in County Antrim
‘FULLY FUNDED Environmental Mentoring Programme for small businesses in County Antrim - Are you a small business with 10 full time employees or less based in County Antrim (excluding Belfast)?; and - Are you a manufacturing, engineering, or services (business to...
Skilled Worker Visa Changes: What Manufacturers Need to Know
The UK Government has confirmed significant changes to the Skilled Worker visa programme, with the general salary threshold increasing from £38,700 to £41,700 from 22 July 2025. This change presents fresh challenges for manufacturers across Northern Ireland already...
Guidance from HMRC- Updated list of the Stop words
As you may know ICS2 has a number ‘stop-words’ that when used in isolation in the goods description will cause the declaration to be rejected. A list of stop-words has been publicly available however the EU have updated their list of stop-words which they have now...