Mary Lyons

Mary Lyons is Director of Enterprise, Employees and Skills at SOLAS, the Further Education and Training Authority in Ireland. Her career includes roles as a researcher, lecturer and skills development specialist in a range of education and industry settings.

Her recent work focuses on national workforce skills development policy and creating innovative initiatives with education and enterprise partners for workforce transformation. The aim is both to create new upskilling and reskilling opportunities for workers at risk of displacement due to technological and market developments, and to support SMEs to grow their businesses by developing an agile workforce.

An increasingly important aspect of her work is promoting Further Education and Training (FET) as a key resource for enterprise. Mary’s current role also includes the application of the FET micro-qualifications model to target priority skills areas; developing a new initiative, Enterprise Connect, to enhance the coordination of services to enterprise across the skills ecosystem; and leading digital transformation developments to make FET in Ireland more accessible and flexible for everyone.