Comment:The problems at Motorola, with a potential loss of up to 400 jobs are, of course, very serious for those concerned, but the intensity of coverage would suggest that the IT industry in Ireland is in meltdown. The truth is that it is anything but, writes Tony McGuire
On the basis that only bad news makes the front pages, it was a pity that only a tiny amount of space was given to an IT jobs surveys that said we had 74 per cent more vacancies in the industry now than two years ago. This reflects our own experience at System Dynamics: lots of demand and too few people available to do the work.
The tabloid version of bad news has a serious hidden effect. It influences students and parents of students in their choices for both third-level courses and of future career. Bad (but inaccurate) news about IT jobs discourages graduates from joining the industry. It typifies the attitude that Ireland is entirely dependent on the multinationals and their jobs. The first whiff of news that can be interpreted as bad starts a frenzy of headlines whose only effect is to undermine further the image of the industry in the eyes of students and graduates.
This attitude also demonstrates a lack of confidence in - or is it lack of comprehension of? - our indigenous entrepreneurs and what they are capable of building.
The reality for Ireland's IT industry is that the days of a pool of young, qualified graduates being ready and available to take up programming jobs for the multinationals are well and truly over. The job of writing programme code has gone to much lower-cost economies, and even those countries are struggling to find qualified, experienced staff and to keep them.
In Ireland we have priced ourselves out of this market as we have done with many other jobs in the past. Now the real jobs in the IT industry are jobs with considerable value to the economy, jobs that require innovation as well as knowledge and experience - designers, analysts, process experts, sales and marketing and many more.
We must take both a short and long-term view of solving this problem. In the short term, we must act ourselves. Multinationals will come and go but local companies of the right scale, credibility and capability will always add considerably to the economy and society. Many of them, including System Dynamics, are looking for lots of those skilled people.
For the immediate future of the industry and the economy as a whole, it is incumbent on us to find them, whether we find them here or we bring them in from other parts of Europe and beyond. We need to have more confidence in our local businesses and in ourselves. We can and do compete with the large multinational systems companies. We need to recognise that we provide long-term sustainable jobs and great careers. The new Green Card system is a great help but companies need to be far more proactive in using it.
So how can we stop what is a serious problem from becoming a crisis? For a start, we know that this is not a problem just for Ireland. There is a worldwide lack of IT skills. For this reason, we must ensure that Ireland remains an attractive place to live and work and, if for no other reason, the infrastructural spend as laid out in the National Development Plan cannot happen fast enough.
The same applies to our tax system, which continues to attract both corporations and people from abroad to locate here. Though there is no suggestion that any political party wants to increase our taxes at the moment, we should learn from our disastrous history of just 30 years ago and remain ever vigilant to ensure it can never happen again.
The longer term is more problematic and it requires the will of Government to change the curriculum in our schools and universities. We must encourage students, particularly girls, to study mathematics and science subjects.
How this is done is another matter but an imaginative and sustained advertising campaign would be a start. Advertising is blamed for making young people drink and smoke. Let's see if it can make them change their minds about something more beneficial for them.
Very importantly, we also need to develop new curriculums that include sales, marketing, process management, project management, at second and third levels. As I said at the outset, IT in this country is no longer about programming. When will the third-level institutions face up to this fact and start to focus on the knowledge subjects that we need and start to produce valuable graduates?
Yes, Motorola is a loss. But our indigenous IT industry is strong and growing and if properly supported by Government - including ceasing to always opt for the "reassuringly expensive" multinational IT companies when filling major public sector contracts - we will be well able to absorb such losses.
Then hopefully the tabloid headline writers may stop putting people off the IT industry and instead turn their attentions to football managers and Big Brother, of which they have a much better understanding.
Tony McGuire is managing director of System Dynamics, the State's longest-established indigenous IT company.
