Craic On

There are a lot of young people in Moville and Greencastle with degrees who have no work or who are working in the pubs and restaurants of the town whilst waiting for an opportunity to get a career job with the skills and knowledge that they obtained when getting their degrees.

Many of them have been waiting for years and it must be soul destroying.

Plenty of Jobs

However, there is one area which is crying out for people with the right skills which is the Information Technology or IT sector. I read recently that there are currently 6,000 IT jobs in Ireland that they can’t fill as there are not enough people with the right IT skills.

Even during the worst of the downturn the number of IT jobs has been rising year by year. I also heard another shocking statistic. There are now almost 80,000 IT jobs in Ireland. However, because they can’t get enough Irish people with the right skills, 55% of all IT jobs are done by foreigners. That’s right 55%. If there were more people with the right skills in IT in Ireland 44,000 more Irish people would have good jobs in IT.

Great Money

Within 2 or 3 years of getting an IT job, young people can become freelance and earn an average of €350 a day. That’s not bad is it? So, why do so few Irish people go into IT?

It’s even worse as regards girls. Perhaps they think it is for geeks. In the UK only 17% of the IT workforce is female. It used to be much higher. I saw a figure recently about Ireland which I can hardly believe. It said that only one in every nineteen people in IT is female. Surely that can be true.

More Girls Wanted

I remember that there were so few freelance IT girls in the UK that they almost always got the job when they were interviewed. Guys used to go up to the boss to enquire if they were taking on girls they saw being interviewed.

It would be too much to go and do another degree in IT for people who had other degrees. However, a great opportunity is about to come to town. We have just received this Press Release. Read on….

“Coderdojo is coming to Moville! Coderdojo is a voluntary education programme which helps young people to learn about computer coding and programming technology.

“At a Coderdojo, young people learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs, games and more. It is anticipated that the programme will commence from October and will be based in Moville Community College.

Volunteer Mentors

“Coderdojo needs volunteer mentors who have some knowledge of coding, the willingness to deliver content passionately and the enthusiasm to encourage young people to take an interest in coding. You will need to be available for one or two Saturday afternoons a month.

“Please contact Brigeen/John on 9385885/[email protected] by the 27th September, or message @MovilleDojo on Twitter if you would like to be involved and help out with this exciting new project.

You can find out more about Coderdojo at www.coderdojo.com”

Take Your Chance

If you do have knowledge of coding it would be great if you volunteered. If you would like to get your hands on a good job in a great area of the market I would grab this opportunity with both hands.

Although I haven’t coded for years I might be tempted to give a talk about the opportunities. I might even give someone some work experience with CraicOn if they are any good.

If these classes are not completely full then Moville and Ireland really do have a problem.