Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)

In 2010 there were almost 3,000 graduates from courses in economics, finance, banking, accountancy, insurance and taxation. In addition to programmes in these core skills areas, graduates from many other disciplines also find employment in the sector. Specific funding is also provided by my Department to the Skillnets Finuas networks programme, to develop and deliver specialised training programmes for the financial services sector. Almost 500 places on the new Springboard programmes, which I announced this week, have also been provided to meet specific skills requirements identified by the expert group on future skills needs in international financial services. The future demand for ICT graduates in the financial services sector was also taken into account in the development of the targets and actions in the joint industry-Government action plan on ICT skills which I published in January.

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