Ms Ann Riordan:

It would be a shame not to fill those positions really quickly with skills transfer. Many of the jobs are not at a very high level. The problem with ICT is that based on being in the industry for so long, we are going a lot for graduates, which is very important, but certainly in my early days in Microsoft it was apparent that graduates got bored. If a company just recruits people at a certain level such as with a primary degree or master’s degree, some of the jobs can be quite routine and they get bored and it is hard to hold on to them. It is very hard in work to challenge someone at PhD level all the time, in particular in some areas of ICT. It is essential to have another skill level for those coming in with skills and which allow for progression within an organisation. The IT industry is very good at that.

I started off in the computer industry as administration manager but then with experience I progressed. Skills change every 18 months so one needs a very versatile programme to keep people on-skill all the time. It is impossible for our educational institutes to keep up with the rate of change. One has to leave that to the companies because they will keep abreast with their technologies. There must be some way of getting what is being called, associated professionals. I will come back to Senator Clune about maternity leave and PhD students.