A HIGH LEVEL inter departmental committee will present proposals to the Cabinet seek to tackle the problem of future shortages of software and electronic engineers.
The committee was set up in December following representations from industry and concerns expressed within the Department of Enterprise and Employment. Senior officials, including Departmental Secretaries, came together from the Departments of Finance, Education and Enterprise and Employment.
The key involvement in the interdepartmental committee is that of senior officials in the Department of Finance, previously resistant to any requests for increased funding in this area, who now appear to have been convinced of the arguments for immediate action. The Minister for Finance, Mr Quinn, also appears supportive of the plan.
Software and electronics companies, both Irish and multinational, have recently been lobbying the Government, pointing out that it takes four years to produce a university graduate with the much sought after skills, and decisions must be taken now to meet demand in the next century.
The recent influx of new computer and electronics firms into Ireland has highlighted the imminent shortage of graduates in these areas, and the inability of existing educational institutions to fill the gap. Last year only half the Leaving Certificate students who put computer studies as their first choice on CAO forms obtained third level places.
The inter departmental committee is expected to put forward a package of proposals, aimed at increasing skills in four ways. In the longer term more university and other degree level courses are planned. More immediately, the target for the 1997-98 academic year is to increase to 1,000 the number of graduates in related subjects like mathematics and physics taking one year postgraduate "conversion courses in information technology. This number has nearly trebled to 430 in this academic year compared to 1995-96.
Efforts will also be made to increase the throughput of engineering technicians, particularly in Regional Technical Colleges, at sub degree level. Finally, more investment will be directed towards foreign language skills at post Leaving Certificate and other sub degree levels to meet the demand in "teleservices" and call centres for multilingual IT workers.
There are long term plans to double the number of conversion course places in the academic year 1998-99 and then to keep increasing them in every academic year until the early years of the next century.
