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There is no better time to be getting into IT as job markets continue to grow in Ireland and globally.

While tens of thousands of employees are laid off among all sections of society every month, the computer sector is still struggling to find suitably qualified employees in this country. Pauline O'Loughlin of Ernst & Young recently said 70pc of technology firms believe there is currently a skills shortage.

"They are looking elsewhere to fill roles and Ireland is competing with a lot of locations - particularly the US and Australia - to get talent to come here."

Pauline O'Loughlin said Ireland needed to "upskill" local talent in order to compete for these jobs.

"There has to be a re-education at secondary level to let pupils and career guidance teachers know that there are major career opportunities in the technology sector."

The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs released their latest report on the ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) Sector under the press release title: "Strong Future and Opportunities for ICT Sector in Ireland".  The ICT sector will continue to provide job and growth opportunities for the Irish economy and workforce according to the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, which launched its latest report on 23 June 2008, Future Requirement for High-Level ICT Skills in the ICT Sector.

Findings

• The Irish ICT industry has largely recovered from the global downturn experienced in 2001 and that there now is a substantial shift in the skills mix and levels.

• Projected demand for ICT skills is set to exceed domestic supply. Industry has also identified issues relating to the supply of people with high levels of technical skills due in part to the lower numbers of high performing school leavers choosing to study in computing and electronic engineering disciplines.

• A greater share of all ICT employment is now accounted for by people with high-level skills, with lower skills jobs being replaced by those with requirements for strong technical, computing and engineering based skills.

• Graduate numbers in computing and electronic engineering have declined from a peak in 2002 although overall the intake into these courses appears to have stabilised. The numbers entering computing courses have seen a small increase and the number of PhD graduates in computing and electronic engineering is expected to increase significantly over the coming years.

• Inward migration will continue to be an important source of ICT skills into the future. Ireland is seen as a location to which experienced talent can be attracted from all over Europe.