Portview’s advanced manufacturing partnership gains shared-island recognition
Portview’s partnership with the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence in Dundalk formed part of a growing all-island approach to future skills and manufacturing.
In 2021, Portview’s work on learning and employment began to develop a stronger cross-border dimension through a strategic partnership with the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence in Dundalk.
The AMTCE, established by Louth and Meath Education and Training Board, was created to respond to changing skills needs in manufacturing, including robotics, automation, additive manufacturing and other Industry 4.0 technologies.
Portview agreed a strategic alliance with the centre, creating a route for collaboration on future skills, training and opportunities for people and employers on both sides of the border. LMETB subsequently listed a memorandum of understanding between Portview Trade Centre and the AMTCE among its formal partnership arrangements.
The emerging partnership was also recognised at government level. In October 2021, Ireland’s Minister of State for Skills and Further Education highlighted the LMETB and Portview initiative during a Shared Island Dialogue on the future of education, noting its potential to support access to high-value careers in modern manufacturing.
The relationship became the foundation for further collaboration. In 2022, Portview joined LMETB, the Ireland Institute of Pittsburgh and Catalyst Connection in a wider Ireland–US memorandum of understanding, while later programmes brought advanced manufacturing experiences to young people in Belfast and the border region.
For Portview, the partnership marked an important development in its learning role: connecting an East Belfast site with specialist facilities, expertise and opportunities beyond the city.
Source: Government of Ireland — Shared Island Dialogue speech, 1 October 2021
