Nash welcomes publication of ICT skills action plan
Issued : Monday 30 January, 2012
Statement by Gerald Nash TD
I would like to warmly welcome the ICT action plan published today by Ruairi Quinn, Joan Burton and Richard Bruton, which will go a long way to addressing shortages of skilled graduates available to prospective employers in the industry.
Last year ICT industry representatives drew attention to their concerns about the availability of qualified graduates to fill jobs, and the plan of action published today puts forward concrete steps which I believe will address this deficiency.
The inclusion of industry representatives, Government Departments and representatives of the higher education sector in the formulation of this plan, will mean that there will be a positive level of engagement among stakeholders and interested parties, which will be of crucial importance.
Proposals such as the introduction of bonus points for higher level leaving cert maths; improving continuous professional development opportunities for second level teachers; and the introduction of retention support measures that will make sure that more ICT students at third level complete their studies, are all very worthwhile.
I was also pleased to see that the implementation of a National Numeracy and Literacy Strategy is prioritised in this document.
While there is a long term imperative and a long term focus in this plan, there are also more immediate actions that can be taken to address more urgent deficiencies, and these too are identified in the document.
These include improving the reach and impact of schemes that are already in place such as Springboard and JobBridge, and a review of existing conversion upskilling programmes to address short-term gaps. The fact that more than 750 places are being made available on 17 new graduate skills conversion programmes across the country will be welcome news to those who are looking to a future in the ICT industry.
In the Programme for Govt we promised to undertake a number of specific sectoral strategies for job creation in the domestic economy, including in the ITC sector, and today we are delivering on that promise.
