The Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence in Dundalk hosted the inaugural All-Island Advanced and Sustainable Manufacturing Networking Expo on 5 November, as reported by the Dundalk Democrat, giving manufacturers, researchers and training providers a forum to coordinate skills and technology adoption across the border.

The Dundalk Democrat and Irish Tech News reported that small businesses, industry leaders, researchers, training experts and policymakers attended, with sessions on AI in manufacturing, technology case studies and cross-border initiatives.

RTÉ reported that the expo is intended to be the first in a series of all-island networking events alternating between Northern Ireland and the Republic, and that it followed the start last month of Ireland’s first apprenticeship in Robotics and Automation, run by LMETB at the centre.

According to RTÉ, the first cohort has nine apprentices, seven men and two women, working towards a Level 6 qualification, with employers spanning mining, pharmaceutical and construction; Irish Tech News named apprentices from Abcon Industrial Products in Cavan and Boliden Tara Mines in Meath.

The Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre of Excellence is the Louth and Meath Education and Training Board’s training centre for advanced manufacturing skills, and the event listing named Invest NI, Belfast Met, SRC, Newry and Dundalk chambers of commerce and DkIT as collaborators.

Erin McGreehan, chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, said at the expo, according to the Dundalk Democrat: “Advanced manufacturing is about people as much as technology.” She said she had met the first robotics and automation apprentices that day and that the sector needs technicians, engineers, data specialists, robotics experts and software developers.

The expo follows the 2025 Future Skills Report, which Business Plus reported found over 350,000 people employed in advanced manufacturing on the island, 12 per cent of Republic employment and 11 per cent in Northern Ireland.

For the sector, RTÉ reported in 2025 that the report called for cross-border apprenticeships and an all-island skills taskforce, and the robotics apprenticeship is the first live example.

The wider signal for the sector is that advanced manufacturing skills are being organised on an all-island basis, with a networking series alternating between Northern Ireland and the Republic.