STRATEGIES NEED to be put in place if a generation of skilled Irish graduates are to be saved from emigration, according to a student representative body.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) yesterday launched a campaign to highlight the reality facing unemployed graduates, many of whom are being forced to emigrate in order to gain employment.
Speaking at the replica famine ship, The Jeanie Johnston, USI president Gary Redmond called on the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt OKeeffe, to introduce short and long-term strategies to deal with over 68,000 unemployed graduates.
The number of unemployed graduates has trebled in two years, he said.
“About 200,000 people are going to emigrate from Ireland in the next five years.
“The morale is simply really, really low in colleges at the moment and we’re calling on the Government to try and do something about this.”
He suggested that in the short term job sharing could be introduced to take graduates off the Live Register on a part-time basis to gain experience.
He said graduates could gain experience working in the public service while retaining their social welfare payments. He said this could be achieved at no extra cost to the State but would result in the graduates “gaining valuable experience in the downturn”.
He said the programme could be expanded to the private sector.
Mr Redmond said the Government needed to act now to stop the brain drain caused by the loss of very highly skilled graduates.
“The number one country we’re exporting people to at the moment is Australia, then New Zealand and then Canada and it’s going to be these economies that reap the benefits of these very, very highly skilled people.”
He said 1,500 postcards would be received by the Department of Enterprise in weeks to come in the next step of the campaign.