INTERVIEW:The recently appointed ICT chairwoman sees education as key to implementing her ideas

“MY VISION is two-fold at ICT Ireland; one is to make the ICT sector a very attractive place for people to choose to work in and make Ireland a very attractive place, through whatever means, for companies to play in,” said Regina Moran, the chief executive of Fujitsu in Ireland and the recently appointed chair of Ibec’s technology industry group ICT Ireland.

It may sound a simple vision but despite the bouyancy of the local tech sector it may prove to be a difficult one to deliver on as employers struggle with a lack of skilled workers to fill available posts. An internal ICT Ireland survey of 60 member companies, which was completed last March, found that 75 per cent of companies have job vacancies. While almost two-thirds have less than 10 jobs to fill, 5 per cent of respondents claimed to have more than 100 jobs that they are recruiting for.

Consequently, Engineers Ireland and ICT Ireland recently teamed up for the Smart Futures conference to communicate the breadth of jobs available in the technology sector and the career options that are available for students, jobseekers and those who wish to reskill. They also launched a careers campaign, timed to tie in with the CAO change of mind period when students can change their college course preferences.

Moran believes the education system is key to delivering on her vision and has underpinned the success of Ireland’s technology industry to date. While she acknowledges the challenge for educators to respond rapidly to the changing needs of industry, she believes radical thinking is needed.

“We still have a very traditional model of education where a person stands at the top of the classroom and delivers the content,” said Moran. “Could you not have everyone in the class with the lowest common denominator iPad and the best maths lecturer in the world beamed on to a screen delivering the content and the teacher does the workshop?”

Some economists, most notably Colm McCarthy, have been critical of plans to expand our technology base as thinly veiled requests for government investment in the sector. But Moran suggests it is up to the industry to sell the sector to students.

“The ironic thing is the people we are targeting are using technology probably better than most. They are on all these social channels, they have their devices, they are very technology literate but I don’t think they make the connection between that and this is somewhere I would like to work. I think there’s still this image of people in white coats and that engineering is this very specialist thing.”

While the Government’s recent jobs initiative seemed to signal a change in focus from technology to tourism as the engine of job creation, Moran welcomed the reassurances on corporation tax, the abolution of employer PRSI on share options and the changes to RD tax credits, which Minister for Finance Michael Noonan announced as part of the package. “It’s a good start, we felt we had been listened to,” she said.

Like many in the multinational sector Moran is upbeat about Ireland’s prospects, particularly in converting RD into jobs.

“Ten years ago we had no research to speak of happening, we had no new stuff, but the real trick is how do you take that and turn into something that creates, jobs and growth and export opportunities. I think that’s happening but we need to up the pace of that.”

She is also hopeful that Fujitsu, whose 400 staff in the Republic are focused on providing services in the local market, may be able to contribute to that change by locating some high end research activities here.

“We have strong links and growing links directly with Japan, particularly on the research side. I’m very hopeful that will blossom and I think that will be good for the country . . . to have eastern links as well as the strong links we have with US multinationals.”

She credits IDA Ireland with giving Fujitsu a “huge amount of help” in recent months as they “try to strengthen the research links” with the parent company.

Moran has brought researchers over from Fujitsu Labs in Japan and she says they were impressed with the research centres they visited including Deri at NUI Galway, Casala at Dundalk Institute of Technology, Clarity at University College Dublin.

“I think Ireland, with what has gone on in research over the last five years, has some positives there, which are not that well known about.”

Surprisingly Moran didn’t study honours maths or physics when she attended secondary school because they weren’t offered to girls. But she says it is more concerning that more girls aren’t choosing these subjects now that there are no barriers.

She attended Waterford RTC and subsequently Cork RTC before landing a job with Amdahl, the mainframe computer maker that was ultimately subsumed by Fujitsu.

“I think there’s this idea that everyone has to have honours maths and an engineering degree to play in our sector,” said Moran. “But there’s a whole diversity of job types in technology . . . it’s not just technical jobs that are available in the sector.”

The performance of its Irish business suggests it could afford to continue investing in its staff. Accounts for Fujitsu (Ireland) Ltd, which was formed in July 2009 as a vehicle for all the Japanese group’s Irish units, generated revenues of almost €32 million in its first nine months of operation and produced a profit of just over €700,000.

“We’ve had a good year but I think this year is going to be harder in Ireland.”

It might be, but Moran is one woman who seems up for the fight.