“Despite the ongoing recession, we've noticed a marked increase in technology vacancies,” said GCS Ireland manager Tim Dunne. “More and more Irish businesses are beginning to appreciate the need to attract the best technology professionals to the country.”

Dunne went on to say that Ireland could be a major global player within IT, especially within cloud computing, where analysts suggest Ireland could enjoy a 20pc market share.

“Through the efforts of forward-thinking leaders, the engagement of the best and brightest within the technology sector, and solid investment of time and money, our IT industry could well be the key to Ireland's recovery,” Dunne added.

“Recruitment businesses can be described as barometers for the economy,” commented GCS founder Chris Bartlett. “GCS cannot expand unless our clients are hiring. After a period of business uncertainty in Ireland, it appears companies are feeling confident enough about the future of the Irish technology marketplace to invest time and money into ensuring that they have the best permanent and interim talent available.”

All doctors who wish to practise in the Republic of Ireland should be registered with the Medical Council.

The first step, however, is to complete a recognised degree. Once a student earns said degree, he or she should register with the Medical Council and complete an intern year with one of the hospitals recognised for this purpose, according to NUI Galway.

The pursuit of a career as a doctor requires commitment. Junior doctors, for example, work an average of 54 hours a week, Irishhealth.com reports.

In terms of compensation, the same report points out that basic junior doctor salaries in Ireland range from €30,000 for an intern just out of medical school to €76,000-€79,000 for a specialist or senior registrar. These figures do not include allowances juniors are also entitled to receive.

In its annual Digital Employment and Salary Survey 2013 Prosperity said that e-commerce multinationals were the principal drivers of the Irish digital sector.

It studied the hiring trends of the top 15 e-commerce firms operating in Ireland – 12 of them US multinationals and three of them Irish.

The leading Irish e-commerce companies comprised 250 of the 3,000 hires.

The survey found that 50pc of hiring done by multinationals is for client-facing roles, primarily in account management, sales and other duties.

A requirement for the majority of the roles is fluency in English and at least one other European language.

Most multinationals insist that applicants are educated to degree level and an interesting finding was the majority of Irish-hired have degrees from UCD.

Senior salaries static but the perks make the difference for multinationals

Prosperity said that apart from an increase in salary for more junior and entry level roles, salaries have not moved signicantly since 2011.

That said the salary levels are nevertheless attractive across the board. Salary levels in digital firms ranged from €60,000 to €100,000 and higher for people with five years-plus experience while people with mid level experience of three to five years were on salaries ranging from €30,000 up to €50,000.

In digital agencies, social media manager salaries started at the €28,000 level rising to €60,000 for seniors with five years-plus experience. A head of digital in a digital agency could expect to earn up to €110,00

User experience developers and designers could expect to start at salaries of €27,000 for juniors rising to around €60,000.

Heads of e-commerce seem to be the rock stars of the bunch with salaries of €130,000 and higher for seniors with over five years experience.

Prosperity said that time to fill jobs has increased notably in recent years due to both a lack of eligible candidates and a longer and more extensive interview process undertaken by multinationals.

It points out that SME indigenous players are struggling to compete with the benefits multinationals offer such as free food, gym, health insurance and social activity.

“There is also the fact that working for an international brand is a compelling proposition for job seeker, not only for the status but also for the career advantage of having a leading international brand on the jobseeker’s CV,” said Garry Mullan from Prosperity Digital Recruitment.

Digital worker image via Shutterstock

Taking place from 8.45am in The Marker Hotel in Dublin’s Docklands, some of the ambassadors gathering for the event hail from the countries hardest hit by youth unemployment, including Greece, Lithuania, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain and Ireland.

Ahead of the EU Digital Agenda Assembly (DAA), which runs this week from 19 to 20 June, ideas generated at the event will feed back into the DAA and the Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs, an EU initiative established to address the ICT skills gap.

A shortfall of 900,000 ICT professionals in Europe is predicted by 2015 and a panel will discuss ‘Skilling up for digital jobs in Europe’. There will also be Dragons’ Den-style pitches from young people.

Speakers at the event include Minister of State Fergus O’Dowd, TD, Ireland’s digital champion Lord David Puttnam, Microsoft Ireland MD Cathriona Hallahan and former professional boxer Bernard Dunne, who is also a Youth2Work champion.

Jerry Carey, managing director of IBS, said they will be opening a call centre in Cork and establishing an office in Dublin to deal with accounts and payment, 98FM reported. Most of the jobs, as a result, will be located in Dublin and Cork.

Fifty new roles in engineering, technical support, and sales and marketing will be created immediately, and the remaining 40 jobs will be filled in the next year to 18 months.

Nearly 300 people work at the company in seven locations throughout the island of Ireland.

IBS-Xerox (Ireland), operating in a sector estimated to be worth about €150m per year, is aiming to increase its market share by 5pc over the next two years.

Carey referred to how future growth will consider developments in the workplace, where ‘bring your own device’ to work is becoming mainstream in business.

“With increasing numbers of employees printing from mobile devices such as tablets, iPads and smartphones, organisations are vulnerable to hackers and malware. We’re developing innovative solutions for our customers which provide greater systems security in an ‘always on’ world,” Carey said.

Carey added the company is experiencing demand from its large corporate clients, as well as growth in the number of SMEs investing in new print equipment.

“Both are very positive signs that confidence is returning to the business sector,” Carey said.

The annual Harvey Nash study reports the views of more than 2,000 CIOs around the world with a combined IT spend of US$103bn.

CIOs reporting skills shortages in mobile have grown by 11pc this year with 25pc of all CIOs struggling to find the right mobile talent.

In addition, 25pc of CIOs cite skills shortages in Big Data and 19pc for social media technology skills, up 8pc on last year.

However, despite the shift towards 21^st century talent, the classic skills like business analysis (sought by 39pc of CIOs), enterprise/technical architecture (39pc) and project management (31pc) that remain the skills most in overall demand.

CIOs are also increasingly worried about retaining their best talent in 2013. Nine out of 10 are ‘very’ concerned with keeping their most valuable skills in the organisation and 28pc have offered staff flexible employment contracts.

However, there has been less progress with workforce diversity programmes and 14pc of organisations say there are no women in the IT department.

For almost a third of organisations women make up less than one in 10 IT employees.

Control and influence

Because CIOs roles are being changed from traditional IT and data management to spearheading new areas like cloud, BYOD and outsourcing, one-fifth of CIOs believe they have lost an element of direct control over their IT assets in the last five years.

However, according to Harvey Nash CEO Albert Ellis that does not mean CIOs have lost influence and are seeing their roles as collaborators.

Two-thirds of CEOs would rather see their CIOs involved in making money rather than saving money and one vital area for collaboration is sales and marketing.

However, when comparing relationships between IT and other departments sales and marketing is the area in need of most improvement with three-quarters of CIOs believing there is room for improvement.

Either way the budget traditionally reserved for IT is moving in the direction of other departments such as sales and marketing.

The proportion of companies where more than 10pc of technology spend likes outside of the control of the IT department has almost doubled to 40pc in the last three years.

Harvey Nash CEO Albert Ellis explained to Siliconrepublic.com that the challenge for CIOs recruiting 21^st century IT talent involves understanding how young technology graduates think.

“This is especially true for the millennials who don’t really get the old concept of corporate hierarchy. They are driven by their purpose in life and whether they are fulfilling their dreams. Are they involved in an exciting company that’s going to change the world or IPO one day like Facebook?

“Mainly the CIO needs to get to grips with that and not think like an old blue chip company. Tune into their values,” Ellis recommends.

Ellis described the ‘new normal’ where the days of money being no object for IT projects are gone for ever. “From here on in IT expenditure will be centred around getting more for less.

“In attracting future tech talent CIOs would be wise to remember that today’s mobile and social developers are being headhunted every single day on the phone and by social media.

“CIOs need to learn how to appeal to these workers’ interests, their ambitions and the kind of things they would like to work on. This is no longer about selling the employer; it’s about selling the opportunity.”

The 2013 Harvey Nash CIO Report will be unveiled and analysed for the benefit of Irish CIOs and IT leaders at a special event on 25 June at the Marker Hotel in Dublin with special guest speakers including investor and mentor Chris Horn, the CIO of UPC Ireland Henry Minogue, the managing director of Mandiant Ireland Tom Keating and the head of business intelligence at Telefonica Ireland Peter McKenna

The online learning technologies and software provider’s growing customer base includes the HSE, NHS Education for Scotland and University College Dublin.

Recruitment is under way for a learning services manager, ASP.NET developer, instructional designer, business development executive, web designer, web application developer and software tester/QA engineer. Further information on these roles is available through the company website.

“Over the past 12 months, Aurion has been scaling new heights with new business wins. By recruiting new talent, with the right level of technical expertise, we will continue to match the needs of our growing customer base,” said the company director Ciaran O’Hare.

“If you enjoy working in a dynamic and creative environment on varied projects and have the relevant skills, we would love to hear from you,” he added.

The new National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) Amendment Bill, which formally establishes NewERA and will make €6.4bn in the National Pension Reserve Fund's discretionary portfolio available for commercial investment, potentially paves the way for thousands of new jobs.

The bill establishes NewEra on a statutory footing and establishes a new Strategic Investment Fund for Ireland (ISIF).

ISIF re-orientates the National Pension Reserve Fund and makes €6.4bn in the fund’s discretionary portfolio available to invest in commercial projects.

“The overall objective of this Governments approach is very clear - creating jobs and opportunities now and providing the basis for sustainable jobs and growth for the future,” Ireland’s Minister for Finance Michael Noonan, TD, said.

“This bill, which provides for the establishment on NewERA, the establishment of a €6.4bn Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, and the streamlining of the NTMA, will maximise investment, generate economic activity and create jobs across the economy,” Noonan said.

The bill will change the way the State manages semi-State companies and aims to ensure efficient use of capital.

NewERA will advise the Government on corporate finance, financial performance and capital investment projects.

“This is the first time that we will have a dedicated fund available to support economic growth and development in Ireland,” the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin, TD, said.

“This fund will continue to attract investment and will make best use of our resources. Given the overall budgetary constraints in which we are operating, it is essential that we continue to ensure investment in jobs and growth in a sustainable way.” 

Accelerating investment in infrastructure

NewERA will also work with stakeholders to accelerate investment in sectors of strategic importance, such as communications, energy, transport and other areas where civil engineering and capital investment is needed.

“NewERA is charged with assisting in the development and implementation of Government plans for investment in key economic infrastructure, in particular water, energy and next-generation telecommunications,” the Minister for State responsible for NewERA Fergus O’Dowd, TD, said.

“I’m delighted that NewERA has already commenced work with the relevant Government departments in these areas, including work on the initial financing of Irish Water, the establishment of the National Energy Efficiency Fund, financial evaluation of the potential for export wind and evaluation of the role that State entities can play in the delivery of the National Broadband Plan.”

While describing the points system as “brutally fair”, the chair of the Irish Software Association (ISA) Edel Creely also said it falls short of being an accurate measurement of student ability.

“Both academics and employers agree that school-leavers lack problem-solving, analytical and creative abilities - a byproduct of the increasing predictability of the State exams,” Creely pointed out.

“As well as that, the points race has become a function of memory, with students, in some cases, cracking the exam code without necessarily having a complete appreciation of the subject matter.”

Creely said skills such as critical thinking, judgment and analytical capability are essential for the growth of the indigenous software technology sector.

She added the industry’s success into the future will depend on how Ireland can adapt its education system to meet the needs of emerging areas of technology, such as cloud, big data and information security.

“But we will also need graduates who can solve problems, work in teams and manage projects. These skills can be integrated into primary and second-level education, and continue right through to college.”

Time to revise the Leaving Cert

The ISA argues that a revised Leaving Certificate curriculum could be assessed in new ways, such as using open-book exams, more project work and extended essays, extra-curricular activity, and demonstration of innovation and creativity.

“Based on this model, college access would change, with points no longer operating as the sole determinant of whether a student goes on to higher education. A new college access model could include interviews, continuous assessment, personal statements, and testing of course-relevant skills.”

She also said the ISA believes colleges should give undergraduate students the freedom to choose interdisciplinary programmes to avoid early specialisation.

“A data scientist, for example, draws on maths, computing, science, statistics and sociology to interpret information and produce insights.

“But most colleges do not offer these subjects as part of the same programme. That needs to change,” Creely said.

The new office will be located in the Citygate office development and will open in August 2013.

The highly skilled, full-time positions span IT, sales, finance, engineering, customer support, and research and development. Recruitment has already begun and EMC expects to have the majority of the 200 jobs filled by the end of this year.

The announcement has been made by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, TD, the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, TD, and EMC president and COO David Goulden at EMC’s Centre of Excellence in Cork this morning.

Minister for Research and Innovation Seán Sherlock, TD, was also at the announcement and was pleased to see R&D positions among those on offer.

“EMC’s partnership with third-level institutions on cloud, big data and data centre transformation research programmes fits perfectly with the Government’s efforts to support effective collaborations between companies and third-level researchers,” he said. “It is about taking the best skills available and using them with the best companies.”

EMC already employs about 3,000 people in Ireland and this expansion in Cork is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.

The EU itself is also in need of highly skilled ICT professionals, the scoreboard suggests.

“While ICT professional employment has grown by an average 3pc over the last 10 years, graduate numbers have decreased. As a result, it has been projected that by 2015 there may be as many as 900,000 unfilled vacancies for ICT professionals in the EU,” the Digital Agenda Scoreboard reports. 

The report states this gap is a threat to European competitiveness, not only to the ICT sector itself, but to the economy as a whole, given the growing integration of ICT across the economy.

The European Commission and companies themselves are taking action to address this skills gap, however, the scoreboard shows.

The European Commission recently launched the ‘Grand Coalition for Digital Jobs’, an EU-wide multi-stakeholder partnership, with the goal of increasing the number of ICT professionals by 2015, so there are at least enough by 2020.

In addition, 9pc of EU enterprises provided their ICT specialists with training to upgrade their ICT skills in 2011. Seventeen per cent of EU enterprises provided training for other staff to develop their ICT skills.

The company has been growing its operations steadily in Ireland and the 50 new jobs come on top of previous expansions, such as 50 jobs that were created in 2011 and 30 jobs that were created in 2010.

The company’s vice-president in charge of Worldwide Infrastructure and Operations Martin Kelly said this latest expansion demonstrates the ongoing growth of Citrix’s technical support, sales, IT operations and online services divisions in Europe and the rest of the world.

“Customers are embracing cloud services and mobile workstyles to create agile, cost-effective, new ways of working,” Kelly explained.

“As such, all divisions of Citrix continue to experience significant growth across Europe, including the Citrix technical support and education business. Immediate career opportunities for sales and technology professionals, at a variety of levels, are available to those who want to advance their career in a dynamic, customer-focused environment,” he added.

The company is recruiting for candidates with experience in corporate sales, escalation engineering, HRIS analysis, sales enablement, sales support, technical relationship management and technical support engineering and management.

IDA Ireland chief executive Barry O’Leary described Citrix as a growth leader in cloud computing services.

“The company has significantly broadened its product range ensuring steady and consistent growth. This expansion across all divisions of Citrix in Ireland will strengthen Ireland’s existing technology cluster and complements Ireland’s reputation as a leader for cloud computing investment,” said O’Leary.

Cloud worker image via Shutterstock

Benefits such as mobile devices and free meals aside, the infographic published by InternetServiceProviders on Visual.ly lays out the companies’ missions, unusual interview questions, tips on getting an internship at Google or Facebook, the average intern salary for software engineers at the companies, and even how the firms handle ‘first world problems’. For example, California-headquartered Google will ship in a snow machine for its employees who may want the white stuff.

Intern hopefuls covet a placement at Google or Facebook, if application numbers and the kind of work awaiting them are anything to go by. Google receives 40,000 internship applications a year but hires only about 1,500 interns, the Boston Globe reported.

At Facebook, interns access the same source code as full-time engineers, in order to “build something great”, according to Facebook.

Interns image via Shutterstock

Invest Northern Ireland has also offered Almac Pharma Services stg£2.05m in support.

The funding is going towards the establishment of a new development and analytical facility for Almac Pharma Services’ Pharmaceutical Development Service (PDS), which will result in jobs in compliance, quality control, and formulation drug testing.

In addition, an expansion of a key production line which is used to manufacture a product for export markets will result in further skilled operations and manufacturing jobs.

Graeme McBurney, managing director of Pharma Services, Almac, said centralising and expanding the company’s production in Craigavon will mean more cost-effective manufacturing and optimal quality control and distribution.

“The added manufacturing capability will enable us to operate with improved speed and efficiency, particularly in the early stages of projects,” McBurney said.

“Ultimately, the investment will make Almac an even more attractive proposition to international clients who seek streamlined, one-stop drug-development solutions.”

Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster said the 229 new jobs will deliver almost stg£5.5m annually in salaries.

As first reported by Siliconrepublic.com, the e-commerce giant is establishing a significant development hub near St Stephen’s Green in Ireland’s capital.

This morning, Groupon officially announced the new positions for experienced software engineers, computer programmers, data scientists and computational marketers, as well as for new college graduates in related disciplines.

Groupon delivers daily deals and real-time digital coupons for consumers and businesses. The company’s new hires will cross a range of functions, including computational marketing - analysing data to personalise consumer offers, and help businesses to identify and retain customers.

With plans to move to new offices in Dublin’s city centre as part of the expansion plan, the company, which has more than 10,000 employees in 48 countries, already employs about a dozen people in Dublin.

“Ireland is a strategic market in Groupon’s global operations - and we want the best and brightest technology and marketing minds to help us to continue to scale,” said Rich Williams, chief marketing officer at Groupon.

“Groupon’s business model is based on a creative, disruptive approach, partnering with our merchant community to give consumers more choice, flexibility and value. Groupon is driving growth through big data analytics, and we want to hear from candidates with competencies across a range of areas, including maths, statistics computing, science and sociology,” Williams said.

The new positions will be filled by the end of the year and Groupon expects to further increase its investment in the months to come.

This project is supported by the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation through IDA Ireland.

Ireland: a leading country for big data development

“Groupon is a global brand name and a highly innovative company operating in a cutting-edge part of online commerce,” the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton, TD, said this morning.

“Today’s announcement that it is adding to the long list of global giants in this sector in establishing an operation and recruiting 20 people in Dublin confirms that we are making major progress in this area. This shows once again what is possible for Ireland in this sector if we pursue it ambitiously, and I am determined to accelerate the progress we have made with online companies to create the jobs we need,” Bruton said.

IDA Ireland CEO Barry O’Leary said Groupon’s arrival in Dublin adds significantly to the cluster of companies at the cutting edge of innovation in the online sector basing themselves in Ireland.

“Ireland is becoming a leading country for big data, which is growing at up to 40pc annually. Groupon’s announcement is a positive endorsement of Ireland’s high quality technical skill base,” O’Leary said.

Groupon image via Shutterstock

Often, user experience (UX) designers and user interface (UI) designers are thought to be one and the same but, in fact, UI design is just one piece of the overall puzzle UX sets out to solve.

A positive user experience is about usability, which means making sure that things are easy for users but also, sometimes, means guiding users to change their behaviour. If there was to be a marriage between your business’ goals and your users’ needs, a UX designer would be officiating the wedding.

We previously brought you an infographic on how to become a UX designer and, as you can imagine, it’s no easy feat.

According to PayScale, user experience designers in Ireland can expect a salary between €32,500 and €51,098, averaging €46,000, while user interface designers can earn an average of €42,000.

UX designer jobs available right now on IrishJobs.ie are advertising salaries of €40,000 to €55,000.

While LOLcats and the ensuing cat image macros that populate the internet on a daily basis are products of the digital age, the popularity of pictures combing cute cats with humorous text dates back to the 19th century. And now you can even make a career out of it.

The (dream) job opening is with Memrise, an educational company that uses fun images to aid in learning new things, such as languages. It’s the company behind CatAcademy, an iPhone app that teaches Spanish through images of cats.

The pilot version of the app was released earlier this year but, to further develop CatAcademy, more cute and funny cat images are required. The cat meme generator will be tasked with creating these images, and there are even three office cats at hand to help.

While the pay scale is negotiable based on experience (giving any Reddit, 4chan or 9GAG contributor an advantage), somewhere in between st£200 and stg£300 a week is suggested and the temporary position is expected to last for about a month.

Necessary qualities include a love of cats, Photoshop skills and a good sense of humour, while an interest in learning new languages is a plus.

The meme-maker will have no shortage of artistic inspiration when they start work on the gallery-filled Vyner Street, located in London’s East End, and Memrise also promises perks such as free lunches in a local Venetian restaurant, enough holiday time to learn a new language, occasional business trips to Europe and the US and performance-related bonuses.

Interested candidates can apply for the position until 21 June.

The Irish jobs market tracker shows that there were 9,434 professional jobs on the market in May 2013, a 5pc increase from April and a 20pc increase from May 2012.

The number of professionals seeking employment rose 2pc from April to 10,135, but this figure also represents a 20pc decrease from the same period last year – a positive indicator that professional job opportunities are growing and that people are securing employment.

“Though modest, this [5pc] increase represents the second consecutive month in 2013 of positive jobs growth,” said Karen O’Flaherty, chief operations officer at Morgan McKinley. “The 20pc increase compared to May 2012 in the number of professional vacancies is also an encouraging sign that the jobs market continues to show steady growth from a changeable position in late 2012 and early 2013 rather than a dramatic increase in the number of vacancies.”

Employers seeking IT, security and multilingual professionals

O’Flaherty believes hiring activity is being driven by multinational and exporting companies. “Continued activity in inward investment saw in excess of 300 new jobs announced for ICT, engineering, sales, HR, legal and finance professionals,” she said. “Within IT and technology demand remains robust for professionals with web, mobile, digital and software development experience. This trend reflects the diverse positions available across a variety of sectors for IT professionals.”

O’Flaherty also says that security professionals in the finance sector and multilingual workers with technical skills are also in demand. “In the financial services area we have seen an increase in the number of compliance and anti-money laundering roles at mid to senior level. Candidates with a strong operations and project management background together with regulatory knowledge also remain in high demand. Throughout May 2013 we noted an increased demand for risk professionals for both insurance and banking sectors,” she commented.

“Many business operations continue to recruit candidates with multilingual skills and we have seen the emergence of inside sales roles coupled with challenging language requirements such as Swedish, Catalan and Dutch. Equally those with multiple languages who also have strong IT, order management or supply chain experience are in high demand.”

UPC already employs 800 people in Ireland, 400 of which are based in Limerick.

In February, UPC completed a €600,000 investment in its National Customer Contact and Administration Centre in Limerick Enterprise Development Park, and the new centre will develop advanced new software and systems to support UPC’s customer service operations in Ireland and other European countries

The 12 new knowledge-intensive IT jobs include full-time positions for IT managers, technical support leads and IT designers.

This announcement follows news last month that UPC would offer 30 full-time positions to candidates from CCMA Skillnet’s Jobseekers Support Programme.

“I am delighted Ireland was selected to host a UPC European IT Competency Centre in Limerick,” said UPC Ireland vice-president and chief information officer Henry Minogue. “In addition, I think it demonstrates our determination to grow our IT team with local expertise in a hub which will support our Irish operations and our European counterparts. Overall, I hope to build on this opportunity to ensure UPC Ireland attracts further technology placements in the future.”

Leo Clancy, head of IDA Ireland’s Information and Communication Technologies Division, added, “Ireland scores highly in global business rankings and continues to attract companies from a variety of sectors including ICT and digital media. Digital technology is playing a growing role in securing economic growth, improving productivity in our businesses and creating new jobs in Ireland. It is therefore a welcome move for Irish companies such as UPC, part of the European division of Liberty Global Inc, to create opportunities which reinforce Ireland’s reputation as a solid platform for foreign direct investment underpinned by our highly skilled workforce.”

Fineos’ Software Services Centre was established in Gdansk in 2009 with 12 employees and the company has just opened new office facilities in the city.

The new offices were officially opened yesterday by the Mayor of Gdansk Paweł Adamowicz.

The Gdansk operation works closely with globally distributed Fineos teams to ensure the delivery of Fineos’ Claims technology.

Fineos founder Michael Kelly says Gdansk is developing as a major ICT hub.

“As a multi-national organisation, we have offices around the world and our operation here in Gdansk is integral to our software implementation efforts.

We have a very strong team here who are committed to helping our customers to care for the people they serve and ensuring we have the highest quality technology platform on the market,” Kelly said.

Ryan, who is head of the School of Mathematics at Trinity College Dublin, has seen first-hand how few girls have traditionally chosen her career path.

"My own experience was that there were almost zero women when I did an undergraduate degree in physics in University College Cork, then going through my PhD in Edinburgh and post-doc stage I still had very few female colleagues. But I think it's important for young students to see that women have done this and it's not impossible to have a career in maths or physics."

Her area of research is in high-energy particle physics, and how particles in atoms such as quarks and gluons stick together.

"These are the fundamental building blocks that the world is made of," explains Ryan, but she notes that their behaviour can be a bit tricky to figure out with pen-and-paper calculations.

"As you pull these quarks apart the strength of the force between them increases so you require increasing amounts of energy to pull them apart. That means we need to do huge numerical calculations."

To power the number crunching, Ryan and colleagues get time on some of the world's largest supercomputers and run simulations to predict new and exotic particles and where they might be.

"We look at early universe physics, trying to see what happened just after the Big Bang," she explains. "We look at what melted, what survived - it's pretty cool to find out how all this stuff works."

Challenging attitudes

So how can we encourage more people to engage with the field? One aspect we need to tackle is the attitude that having poor maths skills is acceptable or even funny, according to Ryan.

"It's a huge issue, this notion that it's OK to be bad at maths," she says. "On the radio or TV in interviews it's considered acceptable and even hilarious to be bad at maths, and it's giving this message about being not interested. I think it's terrible. If you imagine you are a child, this is a message that is reinforced from a very early age, that it is fine to be bad at maths."

Yet for those who do study maths, it can be a passport for many different types of career, she notes.

"If you come out of college with a maths degree you can do anything - finance companies, hedge funds, computer firms would snap you up. That's because of the skills you learn, you can think through problems."

Positive signs

Despite the challenges, Ryan is starting to see some encouraging signs - more students are taking honours-level maths in the Leaving Cert and turning up in the courses she teaches. Plus, she says she is hopeful about the new Project Maths curriculum in secondary school, which puts the focus on problem-solving.

Recent out-of-school initiatives have also caught her attention such as CoderDojo, where children and teens learn to write code, and she notes the emergence of girl-focused Coder events such as CoderDojo Divas and CoderDojoGirls. Perhaps a similar model could work for maths and physics too?

"There's something to be said maybe for encouraging girls specifically to do these subjects in workshops and meetings where they can come along and do some maths and physics, see that it is all fine and meet some role models and find out what they do," she says.  

"I think we need to encourage girls to believe they can do maths and physics, there is no biological reason why they can't and there should be no societal reason. It's there for them to do; it might not always be easy, but it's worth doing."

Women Invent Tomorrow is Silicon Republic's year-long campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths

Strong will remain closely associated with the Irish operations as she has been named chairman of the UPC Ireland division.

She will be succeeded in Ireland by Magnus Ternsjö.  Since 2009, Mr. Ternsjö has been managing director of Liberty Global’s Central European Direct to Home (DTH) satellite television business - UPC DTH S.a.r.l. located in Luxembourg - covering Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Romania.  

Dana Strong, who has more than 20 years experience in the telecoms industry, is also chair of the IBEC-based Telecoms and Internet Federation (TIF) and played a key role in the Department of Communications’ National Broadband Strategy.

UPC’s parent company Liberty Global acquired Virgin Media in a deal valued at approximately US$23.3bn.

Another former CEO of UPC Ireland Robert Dunn has also been appointed to a C-level position at Virgin Media, that of chief financial officer.

“This is a very exciting time for our company as Virgin Media joins the Liberty Global family,” Strong said.

“I look forward to contributing to the future growth and development of Virgin’s business in the UK.   As I take up my new role as chief operating officer of Virgin Media, I am also particularly delighted to be appointed chairman of UPC Ireland so that I can continue to contribute to and be a part of its future.”

The company announced plans to create 100 jobs in Louth in 2011.The company now employs approximately 140 people across Ireland and currently has a further 30 open positions.

“As a company, our primary purpose is to develop, deliver and produce test results for people to fairly demonstrate their knowledge,” Prometric CEO Michael Brannic said.

“This is no small responsibility, and our employees in Ireland are part of our collective global business. Together, we provide a valid, secure and accurate measure of success or failure for millions of people per year.”

Prometric clients include Microsoft, the European Union’s Personnel Selection Office (EPSO), Ireland’s Road Safety Authority (RSA) and Irish Medical Council, the Project Management Institute (PMI), as well as India’s renowned CAT exam and the Association of American Medical Colleges’ MCAT, both of which qualify students for access to prestigious business and medical schools.

Test development professionals in Dundalk work with the RSA to develop new and revised exams for professional drivers. They publish new exams for the Building Energy Rating Assessor (BER) programme on behalf of the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland. UK-based ARM Holdings partners with Prometric to develop exams used for certifying technology professionals who produce 35pc of all consumer digital devices in the world (more than 40 billion microchips).

Other major clients are based in China, Dubai, Japan, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea and many others.

“Prometric is a perfect example of a company that follows the sun, and can deal with the West Coast of the United States as easily at it communicates with Asia because of Ireland’s unique geographic location,” the Minister for State responsible for delivering the Government’s NewEra plan Fergus O’Dowd TD said.

IDA Ireland CEO Barry O’Leary echoed this and said Prometric’s rapid growth in Dundalk further endorses Ireland’s credentials as key location for the business services sector.

“Prometric has a growing customer base and many high profile customers operating in global markets. I would like to offer the on-going support of IDA Ireland as Prometric further develops its Irish operation.”

Digital business image via Shutterstock

In Ireland, a recent evaluation of the Government’s JobBridge internship scheme has claimed it is among the most successful of its kind in Europe, with three in five participants securing employment.

Besides JobBridge, individuals seeking internships can look to companies, such as Intel and Google, or colleges, some of which include internships as part of their programmes (obviously, gaining an internship via this route would require being enrolled in a programme).

This week, we (with tongue in cheek) tip our hats to interns, those individuals working to kickstart their careers.

The first phase of enrolments is being filled by applicants who underwent an eight-week intensive training programme, including two weeks on the job training and who qualified as technical service desk agents. The new recruits are also part way through a FETAC Level 6 Frontline Technical Support training programme, which enables them to gain a recognised qualification in frontline technical support.

UPC was introduced to the job-seeker scheme this year through the Contact Centre Management Association (CCMA) Ireland Skillnet programme. This is a technical transition programme aimed at job-seekers from non-technical backgrounds who are looking for opportunities to change careers and gain employment.

The JSSP is a 100pc funded initiative aimed solely at training unemployed people. It provides skills that are in demand by industry, combined with direct access to employers through work placements.

The first nine graduates of the programme joined UPC today.

The second round of graduates (10 in total) will be introduced on 10 June and the final group (11 in total) will come on board by 24 June. UPC is recruiting for this final group and interested applicants should go online for more details and then send their CVs to UPC.

“The people we have recruited are customer focused and they have the skills and positive attitude that we need,” said Eileen O’Loughlin, human resources director at UPC.

“This combination will help us support our business in meeting the growing demand for UPC services. The recruitment programme also supports the Government’s initiatives in moving people off the live register and creating local jobs in local communities,” O’Loughlin said.

The new technical service desk agents will be responsible for supporting UPC’s 315,000 fibre powered broadband customers.   

UPC recently passed the 1 millionth subscription mark for its superfast broadband, TV and communications services.

On Device Research questioned more than 17,000 young people in six countries – the UK, the US, Nigeria, India, Brazil and China – on how social media has impacted their careers.

The results of this survey reveal that 1 in 10 people aged 16 to 34 have been rejected for a job because of comments or pictures on an online profile. The figure is highest in China, where 16pc of those aged 16 to 24 and 14pc of those aged 25 to 34 had lost out on a job in this way.

Facebook was the most popular social network being used by those surveyed but, despite the potential negative impact on career prospects, nearly two-thirds were not concerned by this. This attitude was most common in the UK, where 71pc of those surveyed were unconcerned with social media’s impact on career prospects, even though 15pc had been rejected for a job because of content posted there.

The clear majority of those surveyed said the risk of losing out on a job did not deter them from using social media. In fact, they were more likely to adapt their profile to impress their friends than future employers.

^{Source: On Device Research}

With about one-quarter of the world’s youth (aged 15 to 24) neither working nor studying, On Device Research recommends better education on social media to make these users aware of the negative effects it can bring.

A major programme for structural reform has been laid out, which is meant to allow for greater levels of institutional collaboration.

All seven universities and 14 institutes of technology will form regional clusters as follows:

• South/South-east: University College Cork, Cork IT, IT Tralee, Waterford IT and IT Carlow
• West/Midwest: University of Limerick, Limerick IT, Mary Immaculate College, Galway-Mayo IT, IT Sligo, Letterkenny IT and NUI Galway (St Angela’s College of Education will be incorporated into NUI Galway)
• Dublin/Leinster (Pillar I): University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, National College of Art and Design, Marino Institute of Education and Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology
• Dublin/Leinster (Pillar II): Dublin Institute of Technology, IT Tallaght, IT Blanchardstown, Dublin City University (incorporating linked colleges), National College of Ireland, Dundalk IT, NUI Maynooth, Athlone IT and Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland

As well as greater collaboration and co-ordinated academic planning to reduce duplication, these regional clusters should also provide easier student pathways from one institution to another.

The idea is that this restructuring will better address the demand for higher education forecast for the next 20 years. A recently published report from ESRI, commissioned by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), claimed the higher education system needed to grow by at least 25pc to keep up with Ireland’s economic growth and technological change.

A first step for greater reform

The HEA, which will undertake the underlying process of reconfiguration, has welcomed today’s announcement.

“This restructuring of the system is not an end in itself but is a key enabler of the wider national strategy for higher education,” said HEA chair John Hennessy. “The challenge now for the HEA, the higher education institutions and all stakeholders is to build on this position to continue to drive the performance of both individual institutions and the system as a whole, to ensure the best quality outcomes for students, the economy and society.”

Quinn has also approved the formal application of three groups of institutes of technology to be designated as technical universities. The first group involves Dublin Institute of Technology, IT Tallaght and IT Blanchardstown, the second includes Cork IT and IT Tralee and the third group consists of Waterford IT and IT Carlow.

Speaking today, Denis Cummins, chair of Institutes of Technology Ireland and president of Dundalk IT, said, “The institutes of technology warmly welcome publication of this document which marks another milestone in the move to transform our higher education system. We strongly support the views expressed by the HEA chairman that other elements of reform also need to be progressed and that comprehensive wide-ranging legislative change is needed urgently to give effect to these proposals. Our institutes of technology have engaged constructively in this process since its commencement four years ago and we will continue to play our part to deliver the best higher education system we can for our students, society and the economy.” 

Higher education image via hxdbzxy/Shutterstock

Abtran will be recruiting for jobs at the Irish Water call centre immediately, with 100 jobs expected to be filled in the next six months.

In addition to the call centre jobs, other new roles will be for engineers and administration staff.

The call centre staff will provide customer support, as a crew will install metres on more than a million properties ahead of new charges to take effect in 2015, the Irish Examiner reported.

The Irish Government asked Bord Gáis in April 2012 to establish Irish Water to roll out and manage metered water supplies to households across Ireland.

Water utility image via Shutterstock

Manpowers’ eighth annual Talent Shortage Survey report was released yesterday and compiles statistics from a survey of over 38,000 employers in 42 countries and territories.

The 2013 report states that 35pc of employers worldwide are struggling to fill jobs – the highest level of talent shortage since 2007. The most difficult positions to fill are skilled trade workers, engineers and sales representatives, with technicians and IT staff also making an appearance on the global list.

For the most part (34pc of employers), it’s the lack of technical competencies or hard skills that are preventing employers from filling these jobs, followed by lack of applicants (32pc), lack of experience (24pc), and lack of soft skills (19pc).

The skills shortage is most acute in Japan, where 85pc of employers are having difficulty with recruitment, followed by Brazil (68pc) and India (61pc).

^{Source: 2013 Talent Shortage Survey Research Results by ManpowerGroup}

In Ireland, employers are least likely to suffer, with just 3pc of those surveyed reporting recruitment difficulties.

Over the years since 2006, Ireland’s recruitment woes appear to have dropped greatly. However, this could be a reflection of the recent period of austerity and a lack of recruitment activity.

^{Source: 2013 Talent Shortage Survey Research Results by ManpowerGroup}

Untapped resources

Despite the global recruitment problem, and the fact that the number of employers who believe the skills gap will negatively impact their business has risen by about a third, 22pc of employers surveyed are not adapting to address this talent shortage.

Among other things, ManpowerGroup recommends creating a culture of talent development and tapping into new sources of talent in its follow-up report, The Great Talent Shortage Awakening: Actions to Take for a Sustainable Workforce.

Among these untapped resources: women.

According to the 2013 International Business Report, women make up 50pc of the global population and 35pc of the global workforce. However, among 6,500 companies surveyed, just one-quarter of senior management roles and 19pc of board positions were held by women, and only 14pc of these companies had a female CEO.

The ManpowerGroup report cites research that shows companies with a higher percentage of female officers achieving 34pc higher returns, yet still employers are overlooking the female talent pool.

“Looking at the strategies employers are pursuing to overcome the talent shortage, we see that there is a considerable gap between what employers offer and what women are seeking,” the report says.

Among those employers affected by the skill shortage, only 6pc are redesigning work procedures (such as sharing work assignments), 5pc are offering more flexible work arrangements and just 2pc provide virtual work options.

Hire women or prepare to compete with them

The HR consultancy’s report then goes on to warn businesses of the risk they run in ignoring business-minded women. “Those employers who are unconcerned with competing for female talent might instead worry about competing with women for talent,” it reads.

Citing a recent US study, the report tells us that, of only two business segments that added jobs to the economy between 2007 and 2013, one of these was large publicly traded corporations, while the other was privately held majority female-led firms.  

“When it comes to women, they will either make a company competitive, or they will become the competition,” the report concludes.

Women Invent Tomorrow is Silicon Republic’s year-long campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths

Gender equality image via JFunk/Shutterstock

Industry research and news service Rigzone compiled the data, which reveals 3,900 positions were added in oil and gas across the US in the first quarter of 2013, and women filled 1,800 of those jobs.

Paul Caplan, president of Rigzone, said he thinks nearly half the women in the oil industry are taking on jobs like technicians, geologists or petroleum engineers, CNN reported.

Other jobs in the oil industry include sales, research, marketing, and work on drilling rigs and pipelines.

It’s still early days in terms of telling whether this increase in women working these oil industry jobs is a trend, however. Overall, the number of new jobs created has been relatively small. In addition, the percentage of new hires that are women has varied in the past. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has been tracking this since 1991, and since then there has never been a full year where more than one-third of new employees in the oil industry have been women, according to CNN.

Still, there are signs this may be changing for the better for women who want work in the oil industry.

University engineering officials have said the demand for female engineers in these fields is so strong that even those who don’t specialise in the types of engineering most often associated with oil and gas, such as chemical and petroleum, can expect job offers, The Pittsburg-Post Gazette reported.

The companies want to hire women and when they begin talking about recruitment, they want to know the statistics about women, The Pittsburg-Post Gazette quoted Don Shields, director at Pitt’s Center for Energy in the Swanson School of Engineering, as having said.

“The companies want to have a balanced workforce; it’s a big societal issue,” Shields added.

Woman engineer image via Shutterstock

Women Invent Tomorrow is Silicon Republic's year-long campaign to champion the role of women in science, technology, engineering and maths