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The two organisations said that in order to address this potential skills shortage they have launched the "Change of Mind" Awareness Campaign. The campaign is aimed at encouraging Leaving Certificate students to fill out the Central Applications Office's (CAO) Change of Mind form before the closing date of 1 July and apply for an ICT course for the upcoming college year.
The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs is a joint industry and government organisation whose purpose is to try to predict the future employment needs of industry in Ireland. ICT Ireland is the information and communications technology arm of IBEC.
The two groups point to recent figures released by the CAO which show a near 25 percent decline in the numbers of students applying for courses in IT and communications areas. But the chairman of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, Dr. Danny O'Hare, said there was a widespread misunderstanding by both students and parents of both the nature of these career areas and their future capacity for growth.
"I would ask parents of Leaving Certificate students that, when advising them of the choices available, to consider the excellent medium-long term growth prospects for these industries as evidenced by the recent job announcements by companies such as Intel, Oracle, Microsoft and EDS," he said.
"The influence of parents on the choices students make can't be denied," explained ICT Ireland Director Brendan Butler. "Parents read the newspapers and see things like Gateway shutting down and say the industry is on the decline; but that of course is not true."
Subsequently, the first four weeks of the media campaign will be directed toward parents, particularly since most students are currently busy with Leaving Cert exams. The final two weeks of the campaign will be directed at the students themselves.
Butler went on to say that Ireland's continued economic growth depends upon its ability to generate a constant supply of skilled graduates. "We expect a shortfall of 3,000 ICT professionals each year for the next five years. It is an imperative that a sector with over 1,000 companies and 100,000 employees be replenished with fresh graduates on an annual basis, and I note that the government has already committed EUR15 million to address the shortfall," Butler said.
The groups were also quick to point out that ICT courses can, in many cases, offer the possibility of living and working abroad, and these courses could also provide jobs in non-IT companies such as banks.
ICT Ireland and the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs are pointing interested students to the CAO Web site for more information, as well as to Skillsireland.ie and ICT Ireland's own Web site.
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