This article is from page 30 of the 2005-09-13 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 30 JPG
IT’S clear that the govern- ment, and the computer software industry sector are seriously worried about the fall-off in interest in careers in ICT Gnformation and com- munications — technologies), science and engineering.
The question being asked is where are the innovators of the future going to come from? More basically, as Bill Harris the director general of Science Foundation Ireland said last week: “without en- gineers, how are we going to make things?”
So, national and regional partners in the ICT industry have now come together in a concerted effort to promote the ICT industry as a career, by sending role models work- ing in ICT companies into schools to talk about their careers. The idea is to encour- age secondary school students to take science and technol- ogy based subjects at Leaving Certificate level, and to con-
sider ICT-related courses at third-level, including compu- ter science, science and elec- WUCereU oT aNieunetee
As part of a nationwide ef- fort to promote the take-up of high-tech careers, the ICT Champions programme was launched in Shannon last week, with a briefing work- shop in Intel Communications for the role models taking part in the programme.
Three Clare schools have already signed up for visits from the ICT’ Champions – St Caimin’s in Shannon, En- nistymon Secondary School, and Kilrush Community School. The Champions will be visiting them to tell the students what roles, oppor- tunities and challenges ex- ist within the industry. Intel, which has a cutting-edge re- search and development facil- ity in the Shannon Industrial Estate, and Dell and Chorus in County Limerick, have supplied over 20 volunteers to visit schools.
“Intel will be approaching other Clare schools to see if they are interested in the pro- gramme,’ Hannah Grene of ICT Ireland told