Ireland's "phenomenal" economic growth since 1994, founded on well-researched industrial strategies and education, provides key lessons that could be adopted by UK regions to boost economic performance, according to research published in London yesterday.

The business and economic consultancy, Business Strategies, identified Irish successes in attracting inward investment and education as important long-term policies in developing a strong regional economy, a highly trained workforce and high-quality well-paid jobs in its study, What Can the Irish Teach Us?

The successful economic strategy of identifying and attracting high-growth industries into Ireland, such as electronics and manufacturing, could be transferred to the UK regions to boost employment and the local economy, the study said. And it suggested that combining Ireland's example of targeting foreign-owned companies producing primarily for the export market with the creation of "clusters" of successful companies would in turn raise the economic potential of the UK regions.

Lessons could also be learnt from Ireland's emphasis on completing secondary and tertiary education, which has raised skill levels in a youthful and a rapidly expanding workforce above that in the UK. The "baby boom" of the 1970s was not matched in the UK and as such the UK regions must concentrate their efforts on raising skills levels within the existing workforce, in particular when workers are made redundant.

The author of the report, managing economist at Business Strategies, Ms Jane Croot, said yesterday that while there were positive lessons to learn from the Irish economy, industrial and education strategies were not "transferable" on the same scale. In particular, the example of cluster industries would depend on the size of the regional economy in the UK and the availability of local resources.