Students prove they're up for IT

29-03-2007

by Charlie Taylor

New analysis of CAO figures indicates that rather than being on the decline as initially thought, demand for computing courses among school leavers has increased.

Although interest remains significantly lower than in the late 1990s when school kids were itching to hone their IT skills to join the dot-com revolution, the statistics show a turnaround in interest for computing courses amongst school leavers.

The figures, which have been broken down by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to give a more accurate picture, indicate that demand for honours degree computing courses has risen 5 percent since 2006, while interest for ordinary degree (diploma) computing courses has grown 6 percent.

Overall, there were 1,835 first preference applications for honours computing courses in 2007, up from 1,752 in 2006 but down from a high of over 5,000 in 1998.

When the CAO figures were first released earlier this month they seemed to show a drop in the number of students choosing computer and technology related courses this year.

This led IT lobby group ICT Ireland to call on the Government to invest in measures to improve skills in the IT sector, with the IBEC affiliate specifically demanding immediate action to improve the manner in which maths and science subjects are taught.

However, Pat O'Connor, head of ICT Skills with the Health Education Authority told ENN that the way in which subjects are categorised makes it hard to see the full picture.

"Some computing and science courses can be spread across different departments. For example, some subjects like computing science, can be run by the Department of Science in one college and the Department of Engineering at another.

"Overall, computing and science courses are spread over a number of different faculties such as Arts, Science and Engineering so the HEA's statistics department extracted the figures and found that overall there's been a rise in demand for computing courses among school leavers."

O'Connor attributed the apparent rise to initiatives such as the 'AreYouUpForIT' media campaign which the HEA ran in collaboration with the Irish Computer Society, ICT Ireland, and Engineers Ireland. He added that individual colleges have become better at going into school classrooms and actively selling the benefits of a career in IT to schoolchildren.

In addition, the HEA has provided a package of supports to institutions to facilitate interest in IT including dedicated funding to support completion rates on courses, developing flexible programme approaches, and 'stabilisation' funding to keep ICT courses afloat -- particularly those within institutions that saw rapid drops in ICT enrolments. This funding is designed to help retain core staff and equipment necessary to support a renewal of enrolments.

In related news, lobby group ICT Ireland, met the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science on Thursday to voice concern about the current strategy on the use of technology in education, and the perceived decline in interest in science and engineering.

ICT Ireland Director Kathryn Raleigh informed the Committee of the number of strategies ICT Ireland had developed to promote science and engineering in schools and at third level. However, she said that a coordinated approach to develop a visionary strategy is urgently needed.

"Students need to be excited about science and mathematics and fully equipped with the skills needed to succeed in a knowledge society," said Raleigh.