According to the EU Skills Panorama, when it comes to skills imbalance, Ireland ranks joint third out of 26 countries surveyed. Naturally, this is a major cause for concern for many employers.
IT jobs accounted for one-fifth of all jobs advertised last year. Programmers and software engineers are in as much demand now as those in construction were back during the boom years. And though the IT sector already employs 84,000 people in Ireland, its burgeoning growth is expected to continue into the foreseeable future.
This has prompted many employers to make rallying calls through various media outlets for students to consider their college options very carefully. The areas of IT, engineering, science, health and business all seem to offer promising career potential; but students are being advised to effect a flexible, adaptable approach to their future studies. For instance, augmenting programming studies with a language such as Chinese, French or German will significantly enhance a student’s employability.
This is the kind of lateral thinking that employers and educators alike are trying to encourage in students – especially now that many leaving cert students may this week be considering changing their college applications.
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