IRELAND'S technology sector is struggling to fill thousands of vacancies and has been resorting to hiring workers from abroad

IRELAND'S technology sector is struggling to fill thousands of vacancies and has been resorting to hiring workers from abroad, according to industry representatives.

The Third Level Computing Forum, made up of heads of computer college departments, government agencies and industry bodies, said up to 50pc of new employees in software companies in the Dublin area were now coming from abroad.

Author of the website and retired DCU professor, Michael Ryan, noted that recruitment websites are showing up to 5,000 job vacancies in the IT sector.

"We are certainly looking at a huge number of unfilled posts," he said.

Shock

"Given the jobs crisis that we appear to be descending into, it will come as a huge shock to people to think that there are thousands of jobs available in a sector that provides secure and well-paid employment."

The report said that there was an urgent need to highlight career prospects in the industry and to dispel the 'nerdy image' associated with the profession.

It pointed out that Ireland is one of the few Western European countries in which there is no study of computing, as distinct from use of computers, at second level and said that we need to add 'computational thinking' to reading, writing and arithmetic as another pillar of a practical education

The forum wishes to encourage a support system for teacher training in order to introduce courses into the second-level curriculum and to attract more women to study the subject.

In Ireland, third level computing education is available in seven Universities, 14 Institutes of Technology and in a number of private colleges. All the universities and most of the institutes are involved in postgraduate studies and research in computing.

Collapse

The forum stated that the numbers studying computing have not recovered from the drop of over 70pc in applications for computing degrees in the 2001-2003 period following the'dot.com' collapse.

Claire Murphy

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