Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)

I thank Senator Walsh for raising this matter on the Adjournment. It is recognised that international ranking systems are referenced by international investors, employers and students and consequently they cannot be ignored. However, it should also be noted that these systems are not infallible and it is widely agreed that they should be interpreted with caution. We can draw encouragement from the overall performance of the Irish system on the latest Times Higher Education system performance tables which place Ireland firmly in the world's top 20. We are ranked 17th overall and sixth in the world relative to our GDP.

The focus in Ireland is on sustaining and advancing performance throughout the system as a whole rather than investing in elite institutions. Earlier last year the Minister, Deputy Quinn, set out his priorities for the development of the higher education system during the next 20 years and endorsed a range of actions to develop the quality of teaching and learning and to ensure the relevance of programme and curriculum design throughout the system. These actions are focused on improving the overall student experience and improving the quality and employability of Irish graduates.

On 30 January the President of American Chamber of Commerce Ireland joined the Minister, Deputy Quinn, the Minister, Deputy Bruton, and the Chairs of the Higher Education Authority, the expert group on future skills needs and ICT Ireland to launch a new action plan to address the high-level ICT skills needs of enterprise in Ireland. The action plan is available on the Department website. It was developed in response to a clear message from industry that there are ICT skills shortages and, more important, that jobs can be created if we have the graduates to fill them. In a highly mobile and global sector such as ICT, inward migration by skilled professionals will always play a key role in meeting the skills needs of companies. However, boosting the domestic supply of graduates for 21st century jobs is a key objective for the education system.

The action plan, published last week, has been developed during the past 12 months with close collaboration between officials of the Department of Education and Skills, the expert group on future skills needs, the HEA, ICT Ireland and the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland. It sets out short-, medium- and long-term actions with specific time-bound targets to meet the skills gap in the short term while, in tandem, building up the longer term supply of high quality graduates. This includes the establishment of an ambitious target of doubling the annual output of ICT graduates from 1,000 this year to 2,000 by 2018.

The skills shortages experienced have not arisen overnight and are not unique to Ireland. There are no quick-fix solutions that will meet all of the shortages overnight. However, the plan includes steps that will be taken to increase the supply of graduates within the next 12 months. The key action in this regard is the immediate roll-out of 750 places on 17 new fully funded graduate skills conversion programmes throughout the country. These programmes have been developed by public and private higher education providers in collaboration with industry partners. Participants on the programmes will obtain a post graduate qualification in core computing skills at honours degree level and will be offered a work placement with one of the companies involved in the design of the programmes. Details of all of the new conversion programmes are available on the BlueBrick.ie web portal. The majority of the programmes will be under way by March and applications can be submitted immediately through the website.