A Merry Christmas and happy holidays from Fórsa’s Skills Academy, and a sincere thank you to all members who took part in trainings, helping make it a wonderful year.

It has been a busy 2025 for us here at the Skills Academy. Not only were we able to provide more training sessions than ever, but we also introduced new courses and helped our members develop additional skills. 

We are truly grateful to our learners for their hard work and their great attitude. You make each training session a pleasure, and we look forward to seeing as many as possible return in the new year to take on new challenges. 

The schedule for 2026 is already jam-packed with training sessions, and there may just be a few surprise announcements coming down the line! With so much on offer, we hope to see some of our past learners return to the classroom, and we look forward to meeting more members next year. 

This year we were able to hold two awards ceremonies to celebrate our learners’ hard work. We saw these as our way of congratulating and acknowledging the commitment of our representatives in completing training to be more effective in the workplace. What we didn’t expect was for the ceremonies to be as fun as they were, or the palpable sense of joy in the room. We’re already looking forward to the next one! 

We are very grateful for the support and enthusiasm of the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the NEC sub-committee on training. Their encouragement is of real value, and we hope to continue meeting their expectations in the New Year. We also want to thank the Fórsa staff who are so involved in our work, from officials to trainers and admin staff. Your commitment to training members is greatly appreciated.  

Last, but far from least, we have a big thanks to branch training officers, who are a crucial component in the success of the Skills Academy and the development of an effective representative network. Their liaison with us is vital to ensuring our representatives get the support they need as quickly as possible and are able to avail of the opportunities to develop as reps. It is thanks to them that we have been able to expand our ambitions and offer additional training sessions. So, from all three of us, a heartfelt ‘thank you.’ 

Not every branch has a training officer yet. We encourage every branch to elect a member to the position. It’s invaluable to our work and an asset to the branch. Becoming a training officer is a rewarding experience, and a great chance to meet and get to know other members. If this sounds like something you would like to do, we would love to welcome you to the team.  

To all our members we hope you keep us in mind when making your New Year’s resolutions. Whether that is to consider becoming a training officer in your branch, develop your own skills further, or to join us for the first time, we’ll be delighted to see you in 2026. 

Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and have a wonderful New Year. 

Fiona, Roisín, and Judith 

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