Look beyond our shores

LEFTFIELD:A MESSAGE TO parents and students alike: stop worrying about the lack of jobs in Ireland, and the shortage of places in many high points courses. As a people, we are incredibly insular in our thinking and only look to opportunities abroad when we have no other option. Even then, when we do turn our gaze abroad we confine our horizons to the UK, America, Australia and New Zealand.

I spent a week recently at the WISE (World Innovation Summit on Education) in Qatar with 1,200 other delegates from the education world worldwide. Highlights included former British prime minister Gordon Brown calling on Google, Facebook and Microsoft to help the 60 million children worldwide who have no access to schools. Qatar is using its substantial reserves of gas and oil to build a 21st century economy from scratch. They will be hosting the World Cup in 2020, and there will be a building boom until at least then.

There are unlimited opportunities for graduates particularly in disciplines associated with the construction industry to find work there for at least the next 10 years.

There are other examples of resource-rich economies around the world, offering excellent employment opportunities to our graduates. Yet, the CAO points required for civil engineering and architecture will remain low this year because of the depressed state of our own construction sector. How insular is that? There are other trends we must address. Most young people starting college this year will have to remain economically active well into their 70s to retain a decent standard of living. That means we are likely to go through at least half-a-dozen booms and busts during that 50-year time frame.

Deciding your CAO options solely on the basis of current trends is daft – yet many applicants to college (and their parents) follow this course.

Also, anyone entering college in 2012 will probably not finish their undergraduate studies until 2016 at the earliest. At least half will take a post-graduate course and will not enter the labour market before 2017.

Ireland and the global economy will be a very different place by then. You should therefore look at your own interests, skills, talents, favourite subject and previous examination results when selecting your college course for 2012.

Focus on your skills and aptitudes and not current trends.

We are insular in other ways. We complain about the shortage of college places in Ireland but there are abundant opportunities in the rest of the EU where there is an acute shortage of young people and where colleges are actively seeking students. Top-quality European universities are now offering over 600 courses taught entirely through English.

Irish students are entitled to be treated in the same way as any of their own nationals, and many of these countries charge little or no fees. For example Holland has a flat fee rate of about €1,600.

It is well worth researching this option on learnabroad.ie, a new website which lists all these options. When you graduate and wish to return home you will be fluent in an EU language and have made very valuable contacts, which will make you very employable.

There are also really good study options in the USA. American universities are always trying to broaden their international student base and offer scholarships to average to good students from Ireland to achieve that goal. Sonya McGuinness at the Fulbright Commission at admin@fulbright.ie will advise you.

A new company which specialises in securing both academic and sport scholarships for Irish students in the US is InTuition Scholarships. Look them up at student-scholarships.com.

The message is simple. There are wonderful education and employment opportunities outside the English speaking world.

Start thinking outside the box.

Brian Mooney is a former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors