It's largely thanks to Waterford IT that Sun Life of Canada, an international financial services company, opted in 1998 to establish a division of its technical support and software development arm in Waterford. WIT, the company has discovered, is a college it can do business with. Sun Life conducted a worldwide search and was attracted to Ireland because of the age profile of the workforce and our education system. But why Waterford? "We were impressed with WIT's range and composition of courses and the time given to programming and languages," explains Sun Life Information Services senior manager, Brendan Maher. Sun Life also appreciates WIT's work placement and graduate recruitment programmes, which it has been able to tie into, Maher says. "The fact that the college has been prepared to listen to us and to work with us and tailor courses or extend them to make them more appropriate to our needs is impressive.

"Technology is changing at a raid pace. Our company needs to be able to adapt quickly. We need flexible people with a range of skills."

The company employs more than 30 staff - half of whom are WIT graduates - and plans to double this number within the year.

Sun Life Information Services recruits at certificate, diploma and degree levels. "It's important that we can get people at all these levels," comments Eimear Mannion, human resources manager.