90pc success rate for graduates of ISA cloud course in finding work

7 Aug 2013

Nine out of 10 graduates from the Irish Software Association Skillnet’s Cloud Careers conversion programme have succeeded in finding work, the IBEC-based body has claimed.

The Cloud Careers programme, developed in association with VMware, is aimed at job-seekers interested in beginning a career in cloud computing.

The Cloud Careers programme is open for applications with a closing date of Monday, 12 August.

More than 95 job-seekers have participated in the programme since it was established in 2011, with 90pc of participants gaining employment as a result with firms such as EMC, VMware, Dell Software, VCE, Abtran and Trendmicro.

A further 5pc have gone on to higher education.

According to IDA Ireland’s year-end results for 2012, IT is one of the economy’s strongest performing sectors, with almost 4,000 jobs created in the industry last year.

“Cloud computing is one of the fastest-growing technologies in the ICT sector globally,” explained Niall O’Cleirigh, chairman, ISA Software Skillnet and director of Rapt Touch Ltd.

“The Government in Ireland recognises this and the enormous job-creation potential of cloud computing, which is reflected in their ICT policy focus on cloud computing and articulated in the Governments Action Plan for Jobs.

“Cloud computing represents an opportunity for Irish job-seekers to take up roles that will be created in the sector,” O’Cleirigh said.

The network runs more than 60 programmes each year, from two-day courses to post-graduate degrees, and more than 3,500 software professionals and executives have taken part in the ISA Software Skillnet training programmes over the past six years.

Equally, more than 250 unemployed people have been provided with free places on courses run by the ISA Software Skillnet in the past three years.

Cloud learning image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

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