Net Results:Why is the Bebo generation shying away from technology, science and engineering as career options? Surely the most wired generation yet to emerge from Irish schools should be embracing the job opportunities that exist in the local high-tech sector, where industry leaders say there is a wealth of quality employment opportunities, writes John Collins.
Last week's official statistics from the CAO revealed the first-round college preferences of this year's crop of Leaving Cert students. Overall applications for courses in technology, science and engineering were down 8 per cent from the previous year. The big winners, rather surprisingly, were teaching, medicine and nursing.
There have been many initiatives in recent years to encourage students to consider studying science or technology at third level. Survey after survey has shown that there are plenty of highly-paid jobs in the sector - just last week, a Eurocom survey found that 63 per cent of European technology firms will increase headcount this year.
While I don't doubt the best intentions of the Irish Computer Society, ICT Ireland and other lobby groups and interested parties that have been trying to encourage the uptake of science and technology, the message isn't getting through. Perhaps it's time we started to talk to students in the terms they understand and with the communications tools they use.
As well as showing a continued widespread unavailability of broadband, a recent ComReg survey found that half of 15 to 24-year-olds use social networking websites like Bebo. Bebo itself claims to have one million Irish users. General election candidates are already using these services to contact potential voters, so surely the lobby groups should be doing the same.
There was recently a furore in the media about Irish boy racers posting videos of their illegal races on YouTube. The initial reaction was that YouTube should remove such content - and clearly, where it shows illegal activities the site has at least a moral obligation to do so.
Allied to that an effective strategy would be for Gay Byrne's Road Safety Authority to have its own presence on YouTube, where it posts videos promoting its message. A few cheaply shot, hard-hitting interviews with young victims of high-speed or drunken road crashes posted on YouTube would probably have a lot more impact with the people that the authority needs to reach than any expensive television advertising campaign.
Surely the tech veterans who sit on the boards of the Irish Software Association, ICT Ireland and even more grassroots groupings could come up with something innovative to promote careers in their fields.
You have to question whether last week's ICT Ireland statement calling for immediate action by the Department of Education to improve the manner in which maths and science are taught had any impact.
Many in the technology industry have wondered about Minster for Education Mary Hanafin's interest in or understanding of the use of technology in education. The recent establishment of a strategy group to advise her on how to spend the €252 million earmarked for technology in the classroom under the new National Development Plan seems to confirm that view. The panel of 10 educators and technology experts includes just one representative from her own department.
It's often assumed that parents are pushing their children into so-called "safe" careers like law and accounting, but this year's figures don't back that theory up. Teaching, nursing, and medicine require hard work and a love of what you do - and only the last of the three holds out much chance of wealth.
Even if riches aren't your ultimate goal, it is now nigh on impossible for someone on a teacher's or nurse's salary to even purchase a starter home in the Dublin area. Last year, Forfás released a survey that showed that, after medicine, the best-paid graduate jobs are in engineering, computing and science.
Another common belief is that the current round of job losses - actual and mooted - in technology firms such as Motorola, Xerox, and Alcatel-Lucent, are denting confidence in the sector.
It would be naive to pretend there is not going to be more blood on the tracks in this sector this year, but that does not mean that there aren't going to be plenty of jobs that will have to be filled in the sector in the coming years.
Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin has pointed out repeatedly in recent weeks that Ireland continues to create more jobs than it is losing.
It is also worth looking past the headlines and examining what is behind recent the redundancies. Some of the global giants with significant bases here will need to trim back their global workforces, regardless of how their Irish operations perform. That was the main factor behind Motorola's recent decision to shut down its Cork software development centre and is also leading to speculation that Dell will shed manufacturing jobs.
With a continual eye on costs, others will seek to move lower-value functions, perhaps testing software for example, to lower cost locations in eastern Europe and Asia.
But there are also signs that outsourcing or offshoring functions is not a panacea. In the UK, consumer brands now state clearly in their advertising that calls are answered by English speakers. Many large corporations are also finding that remotely managing operations in low-cost locations is not a trivial task.
Ultimately, the reason that the Bebo generation doesn't want to take tech-related courses could be much more prosaic.
Social networking, text messaging, and music downloading are so embedded in the average teenager's life that they may not see the need to study the technologies that underlie them.
Perhaps rather than touting the education levels of our workforce to inward investors, IDA Ireland should start talking up our young peoples' enthusiasm for Bebo, texting and BitTorrent.
