IRELAND is currently the only country in the developed world turning away well qualified young people who want to study computing, the head of the computer applications school at Dublin City University has said.

Professor Michael Ryan told a private forum on the future of the Irish software industry at DCU that in most European countries the numbers applying for computing courses are less than the places available.

IDA chief executive Mr Kieran McGowan gave the example of the Netherlands, where the number of entrants to computer science degrees had fallen from 1,200 in 1988 to only 460 last year.

"Ireland has a unique advantage in this respect. In 1997 the degree programmes in computing in the state attracted a total of 3,600 first preference applications for a total of less than 700 places," said Prof Ryan.

"The only constraints in growth in the numbers of computing graduates are space and staffing. These constraints are biting at present as all the colleges have already increased their intake to, the maximum possible limit, given their existing resources.

One worrying trend is the decline in applications from young women, said Professor Ryan. "They now account for about 20 per cent of the ,intake, compared to 50 per cent in the early 1980s. We need to act to remedy this situation, and to ensure that software as a career has a high profile at second level."

However, he also put the Irish, software skills problem in an inter national context. Pointing out that software is becoming "the single largest industry in the world" - with a more than $300 billion (£198 billion) annual turnover he said the USA has a requirement for 190,000 computing graduates per annum, but is producing less than 36,000. "All the developed economies are in a similar situation."

Some developing economies like India and China "have spotted the opportunity which this represents." India is now producing 75,000 computing graduates per annum, and has "emerged as the significant player on the world software stage."

In comparison, Ireland produces less than 500 computing graduates annually, and will probably never produce more than 3,000, said Professor Ryan. "With these small numbers we must avoid competing at the lower levels of work, where we will always be vulnerable to economies of scale and lower cost competitor countries. We must position ourselves as, far up the pyramid as possible."

This move "up the pyramid" required the continuing education of staff to graduate and postgraduate levels, with the need for advanced level evening programmes to be put in place, like DCU's own B.Sc. and M.Sc. computer applications courses.

He also urged a greater level of activity at postgraduate and research level. "At present Ireland produces less than 10 Ph.Ds in computing and software per annum and less than 40 M.Scs by research."

However, he stressed that not all the wide range of skills in the software industry involved specialist computing degrees. "In many cases a company's needs can be better served by someone with a certificate or diploma or with a non computing degree." He said it was important to match people to the jobs available, and not to believe that all jobs could only be filled by graduates.

In an attempt to show this, Professor Ryan presented the forum with a table (see left) which he said was an initial exercise in matching some job categories to current qualifications.

Professor Ryan urged the representatives of over 20 software firms at the forum to collaborate with the educational sector in exchanges of staff, student placements, financial and other supports. "The computing industry cannot afford to take a hands off approach in relation to something as vitally important to it as the supply of skills to the software industry.

"The software industry can no longer afford to regard the education sector as a kind of Aladdin's lamp. It needs to be more closely involved in both planning and resourcing what is happening.

"Past failures to plan effectively have resulted in the industry in 1997 being seriously affected by a skills' shortage which need not have happened. Many warnings were given by industry and academic sources, but the mechanisms needed to respond to them were lacking."