High-Tech Future At Stake

Date Published: 22-Aug-2008

SENIOR executives of large multi-national companies in the city have expressed concerns over the ‘move away’ by second and third level students from maths, science and technology courses.

Industry chiefs in the city have indicated to Galway Chamber of Commerce their difficulty in recruiting suitably qualified personnel for a number of positions over recent months.

The concerns – outlined this week to the Galway City Tribune – were also spelt out nationally earlier in the week by the Irish MD of Hewlett Packard (HP), the formerly Digital, and still one of the city’s big multi-national employers.

This week, Michael Coyle, CEO of Galway Chamber of Commerce, told the Galway City Tribune that only in recent days, a senior figure in a major local industry had expressed concerns over the availability of suitably qualified candidates to fill a number of positions which had arisen in his company.

“This company had a difficulty in both the quantity and quality of candidates that they were seeking. In the end they had to ‘go outside’ to fill those positions – these are very serious concerns,” said Michael Coyle.

He added that while the problem was a national one in terms of students taking up maths, science, technology and engineering courses, it was one of particular concern to Galway given the…