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03 October
Facebook To Locate International HQ In Dublin Creating 70 Jobs
Will Irish Professionals
Benefit from Digital Dublin with Chronic ICT Failure in Schools?
by
SoftwareGuru
posted Monday 6th October 2008 9:35 GMT
The announcement that social networking site
Facebook is to locate its international HQ in Dublin, creating 70 jobs,
immediately triggered two recent quotes in this writer's memory.
"With few exceptions, we are finding that Irish graduates do not
meet the standard required. The computer science graduates coming out of
universities are too few in quality and quantity. It’s unlikely that we
would offer a job to more than one graduate in a year or two. It’s a bad
situation."
- David O’Meara, Chief Executive of Havok, the Irish
company behind the physics engine in most top 10 selling computer games,
acquired last year by Intel for US$110m.
"Ireland’s ICT sector risks being seriously undermined by continuing
maths failure rates at second level. This is a real economic issue for
Ireland in terms of companies that rely on students coming out of
engineering and computer courses."
- Shane Dempsey, Director of the Irish Software Association.
With ICT in Irish Schools still being majorly underfunded, how long
before Facebook and other technology-based companies go elsewhere?
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Will Irish Professionals Benefit?
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Scotland is keen to invest in ICT in
Schools. |
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Long-term Strategy Required
Despite the turbulent nature of the global
economy in recent months, Ireland's economic growth over the past 20
years has not gone unnoticed.
Last week the Irish Government's decisive decision to guarantee the
country's six main banks amid the height of the credit crunch saved at
least one financial institution the next day and brought confidence and
stability to the Irish markets. Now the rest of Europe is looking to
follow the same approach.
U.S. Presidential hopeful John McCain in his first televised debate even
name-checked Ireland and its forward thinking approach to corporation
tax as part of a smart strategy for creating employment.
So if Ireland has the ability to show true leadership to the rest of the
world, why can't we take action now to safeguard our economy in the
long-term through substantial ICT funding for schools?
Why wait until it is too late?
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It's Life Jim But Not As We Know It
To have companies such as Google, YouTube, Yahoo!,
Microsoft, eBay and now Facebook in Ireland is obviously a very good
thing indeed.
With an early Government budget approaching, there are many areas which
are likely to have their spending cut while we negotiate our way through
these troubled financial waters.
However, as the rest of the world similarly tightens their collective
belts, Ireland is presented with a golden opportunity.
Technology and the internet is on the verge of changing our lives beyond
recognition.
Manufacturing jobs have moved elsewhere with Irish workers unable to
compete with radically lower wage demands from other countries.
We must invest now in a Digital Ireland and choose to lead rather than
to be led.
Otherwise we will be throwing away the greatest opportunity that the
country has ever been presented with to better itself. |
Maths is the cornerstone of Digital
Ireland.
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Posted by
admin
at
16:47
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In Your Face: Facebook HQ comes to Digital Dublin, joining Google, eBay and YouTube.