University of Limerick (UL) has received funding to offer 100 free places on two of its full-time diploma courses covering cloud computing and software development. The university has been funded under the Higher Education Authority’s ICT Skills programme to reskill graduates.
Earlier this month, Ireland’s Education Minister Ruairí Quinn, TD, announced funding for 760 free college places in ICT graduate skills conversion courses.
The first phase of the initiative started last March when more than 700 free places on intensive ICT graduate conversion programmes were introduced.
UL will be offering 100 free places to upskill unemployed graduates via its higher diploma in mobile and secure cloud computing and its higher diploma in software development.
The university has devised the programmes along with industry partners in order to help graduates from other disciplines reskill in the areas of computing, programming, software and data analytics.
As part of their diploma, students will have a job placement with a company. According to UL, students who have undertaken theses programmes to date have had placements with start-ups and with companies such as EMC, SAP and PMI Software.
Dr Ann Ledwith, UL’s assistant dean of adult and continuing education, said that the university came up with the diploma programmes in direct response to specific industry skills shortages for people with high-level ICT and software development skills.
“These programmes have been developed with extensive industry consultation and input to ensure we are delivering graduates who are fully equipped to support Ireland’s growth industries,” she said.
“Great emphasis is also placed on providing students with career advice and supports such as interview preparations and guides to ensure they are fully ready to re-engage with the workforce,” added Ledwith.
Further information on the 15 ICT conversion programmes, including the two courses at UL, is available via the ICT Skills website.
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