Guidance counsellors should watch for a very interesting package which is about to be posted out by Forbairt's National Software Directorate. It will contain four copies of a booklet on careers in computing and a 10-minute video about people working in this area and students studying computers at third level.

The booklet contains a list of third-level courses, useful addresses, facts and figures on the software industry in Ireland and sections on the jobs, the right qualifications, job descriptions, pay and conditions, career patterns, the employers, future trends and women in software. The initiative represents "a serious effort to get people into software," explains Seamus Gallen, director of the National Software Directorate, who compiled the booklet.