The Recruit and Retain project was praised by the Northern Ireland Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment as a good model for recruiting and retaining professionals in rural areas. Minister Arlene Foster mentioned the project during discussions in the Northern Ireland Assembly this week.

The Recruit and Retain project addresses the difficulties in recruiting and retaining high quality people to work in the public sector in remote and rural areas. It does so by providing training and professional development geared towards rural areas, ways of combatting isolation, and ways of securing social and family stability. Besides Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, the project includes partners from Scotland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. The project is run by NHS Western Isles in Scotland.

Mrs Foster opened the Recruit and Retain project conference on 6th May in Enniskillen, and stated that she took away a lot from it. She believes that improvements could be made for rural areas in Northern Ireland, and she would look with colleagues at ways of implementing the project´s approach. Mrs Foster also emphasised the importance of cooperating with other countries in Europe, where rural areas may be much more remote than in Northern Ireland. 

For more information about the Recruit and Retain project, please visit www.recruitandretain.eu.

Minister Arlene Foster speaks with Project Manager Andrew Sim (m) and Head of Secretariat Ole Damsgaard (r) during the Recruit and Retain conference.