Saturday 10 March 2012

Ireland's 21st Century Future Careers and Education


Looking for a career in Ireland but don't know where to start? Maybe you are not sure where there is growth or which industry sector shows potential for a career. The jobs industry is evolving rapidly in Ireland. Industries are having to keep up with lightning fast advances in communication technology.


The videos included in this post may help give you insight into where industries are growing, not shrinking. The information included in the videos below  might also help you to steer and guide your career and education paths a little better.

Here is a video I made for this blog to highlight to students, parents of students and those unsure of where there has been growth. There has been significant development in 2011 in the online video games industry, I.T. , the explosion of social media with companies such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn locating here and the potential of cloud computing to keep Ireland sustainable.

Ireland 2012 - A Gamechanger

Directed and edited by Marcus Howard, Communications lecturer in O'Fiaich College and owner of http://irish21stcenturystudents.blogspot.com  

 Uploaded by on 9 Mar 2012

 

 

Here is also a video link to a video about why Ireland is becoming the Internet Capital of Europe  

According to the Irish Examiner, Paul Breslin CEO of Popcap Games has highlighted that with the right tax incentives, Ireland could become the digital capital of Europe,


According to the video "Ireland By The Numbers" below, uploaded by IBEC Information, 8 of the top ten global technological firms and 10 of the top 25 medical devices firms are located in Ireland. Enough beef is produced in Ireland to feed 30 million Europeans making it the largest exporter of beef in Europe. 1 in every 5 hamburgers served in McDonald's in Europe is Irish beef. Also according to the video, total US investment in Ireland is greater than into the combined investment into Russia, China, Brazil and India. Also 10 of the world's top selling prescription drugs are made in Ireland, who are considered to be one of the leading countries in medical technology. Ireland is also the world's largest net exporter of pharmaceuticals.

Ireland by the numbers

 


Uploaded by  on Nov 1, 2010

In the video "It's Happening Here" below, uploaded by Enterprise Ireland, there has been a significant growth in the software industry. Software has become one of Ireland's fastest growing industries and there are many vacancies available in over 600 software companies. There is a skills shortage in the technology sector with some tech companies hiring employees from outside the EU. 

It's Happening Here
Uploaded by on Aug 2, 2011

According to the video "Why the Irish will always be the business" below, uploaded by IBEC Information, Ireland has Europe's youngest workforce and has also experienced the EU's highest rate of population growth. Ireland also boasts some of the world's most employable graduates. According to the video we have a very high percentage of population with third level education, as well as at PHD level and Ireland also has a very high rate of entrepreneurial activity within the EU. The Sligo IT Team were also the 1st European winners of the 2011 Microsoft Imagine Cup , beating more than 350,000 students from 183 different countries. According to the IMD Competitiveness Yearbook 2010, Ireland is more flexible than US, Japanese and European employees when managing new challenges.



Why the Irish will always be the business

Uploaded by  on Oct 11, 2011


According to the video "Believe it or not, there was some good news in 2010!" below, uploaded by InvestIreland, companies such as LinkedIn, EA Games, AMPAC, Otter Box, Enercon, United Technologies Research Center, Warner Chilcott, Riot Games, Webrppt and Straker have located here in 2010. Paypal also announced over 1,000 jobs for Dundalk in 2012. More good news has come to Ireland with the arrival of Elli Lilly for the pharmaceutical sector. Companies such as Google, eBay, Dell, Hertz, Hewlett Packard, Kelloggs, Yves Rocher, Lufthansa Technik, AOL, Allianz, Hollister, Covidien, Merit Medical, GALA and Lumension Security have considerably expanded their companies in Ireland. Research and Development success was found by companies such as Intel, IBM, Analog Devices, Lumension, SpencerStuart, United Technologies Research Center, Valeo, Synchronoss, PAS and Covidien. Investment for research and development for 2010 was estimated to be €500 million and almost 11,000 new jobs were created.





Believe it or not, there was some good news in 2010!


Uploaded by  on Jan 7, 2011


  Some statistics about the growth in the medical technology sector can be seen in the video below

Ireland - medical technology - by the numbers

 Uploaded by on 10 Nov 2011

 

According to the video "IDA Ireland 2011", uploaded by InvestIreland, companies such as Pinger, Delcath, Mycroft, Marketo, Commence, Glass Lewis, Engine Yard and Sangart are emerging. 9 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies are located in Ireland with 50% of the world's leading financial firms. 17 of the top 25 medical devices companies are also located here according to the video.

IDA Ireland 2011 

 Uploaded by on 9 Jan 2012

 

 Social Media Career Potential in Ireland

Social media is changing how we communicate with companies and with each other. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, some of the biggest companies on the internet, have headquarters located in Ireland.

 

In the video "Social Media Stats Ireland - June 2011" below, uploaded by Socialtalent, the top 10 websites looked up in Ireland are Google Ireland, Google, Facebook, Youtube, Yahoo, wikipedia, Windows Live, Blogger, Linked In and Twitter. The only jobs site to appear in the top 100 at no.83 is http://www.jobs.ie/. This is of note as there are over 439, 200 people on the live register in Ireland. In Ireland there are over 1.94 million people on Facebook, which is 76% of the country's internet population. 700,000 of these Facebook users are between 17 and 22 which is 9 times the number of full-time students in Irish universities put together. LinkedIn has over 470,000 users in Ireland and is one of the most popular professional social media sites. According to the video, there is a massive shortage of IT, financial and accounting professionals while Google has stated that there is over 5 million searches in Ireland per month for the term "jobs". Surprisingly, for every 1000 searches for jobs, 0.4% are for IT jobs, 0.3% for financial jobs and 0.2% for accounting jobs. 600,000 smartphones are in use in Ireland in 2011, yet Google estimates by 2013, the sale of smartphones will overtake the sale of PC's and laptops. Irish people have downloaded over 10 million apps for their smartphones.

Social Media Stats Ireland - June 2011

 Uploaded by on 30 May 2011

According to the video "The Irish Consumer's Digital Behaviour Has Changed For Good | Video Infographic" below, uploaded by Cybercom Ireland,  48% of us in 2011 now have smartphones, which is a 380% increase on 2010. 50% of us have downloaded an app a fortnight and 65% of those were free apps. Apart from calls and texts, 42% use our phones to download music, 50% use them to view maps and 55% use them to check the weather while 61% of us play games on them. Over 600,000 of us use our phones everyday for Facebook.100,000 photos are uploaded  in Ireland while 230,000 videos are also uploaded everyday. Broadband is now averaging 7Mps and 37% of us watch TV online nearly every day compared to 7% in 2010. The 3 most important platforms to engage Irish consumers are mobile, social and online TV.

The Irish Consumer's Digital Behaviour Has Changed For Good | Video Infographic 

 Uploaded by on 31 Mar 2011

  According to the video "Social Media in Ireland" below, uploaded by edelmanireland, 64% of young people aged 16-24, use the internet for social networking (Source: Eurostat). Facebook has had a 500% increase in Irish users since January 2009, Youtube has over 1.3 million regular Irish users and gets over 400 million views per month (Source: Content Is King Conference/Darragh Doyle). Linked In has approximately 420,000 Irish users and Twitter has approximately 180,000 Irish users (Source: Barry Hand), 30% of which use Twitter everyday (Source: Ibsos-MRBI). Facebook is used in Ireland by 79% to stay in contact with people they don't see everyday, 56% look at their friends photos, while 36% play games on it (Source: Amárach). With Linked In, 50% use it to stay in touch with their network, 49% use it to browse jobs and 10% use it to look for staff (Source: Amárach). Ireland's mobile penetration rate at the end of 2010 was 116%, with over 5 million mobile subscribers (Source: ComReg). 700,000 Irish users access the internet through their mobile (Source: Return2Sender/B&A). It has been estimated that over 1 million Irish adults own a smartphone in 2011, which has nearly doubled its figures since 2010. Over 8 million apps have been downloaded in Ireland and it has been estimated that there will be 180,000 iPads sold by the summer of 2011 (Source: Return2Sender/B&A). According to the Edelman Trust Barometer 2011, Irish opinion formers rate search engines as the most important information source about a company. The Irish Times website traffic grew 82% from 2010-11

.

Social Media in Ireland

 Uploaded by on 16 Mar 2011

Here is a 2010 video interview with Colm Long, Director of Online Operations of Facebook Ireland HQ discussing the future of it's operations and how they are looking to expand their HR for the European, Middle East and African continents (EMEA).Click the link Facebook in Ireland 

Microsoft Ireland is also targeting the European, Middle East and African continents according to Paul Rellis, Managing Director of Microsoft Ireland in his 2010 video interview at the link Microsoft In Ireland.

Social media and Ireland. Important one to watch!

 Uploaded by on 21 Oct 2010

  According to the video "Be In Business In Ireland" below, uploaded by EnterpriseIrelandTV, Frank Lynch, CEO of Enterprise Ireland has said that some of the greatest and most competitive products in the world have been made in Ireland. An example of these companies include Glanbia, Newbay, Daon, RCSI, Fexco, Kerry, taxback.com, CombiLift and Norkom Technologies.There are more Irish based directors in the UK than any other nationality and Irish goods and services are sold in every continent of the world. In 2010 consumers from over 140 countries bought goods and services from Ireland to the value of €150 billion. The value of Irish exports is greater than that of Australia or Brazil. According to the World Bank Competitiveness Report 2010, "Ireland is No.1 in Europe in terms of ease of starting a business".

Be In Business In Ireland 

 Uploaded by on 4 Mar 2011

  Education In Ireland: The Future

So with all this demand for technology and Ireland becoming the digital capital of Europe, have we got our education system geared towards 21st century needs for Irish students? Is the education system up to speed with the demand for new skills for a future technological workforce to enable Ireland to become competitive in world markets? 

On May 26th 2011, Intel held an open forum event detailing the skills needed in education for the future of Ireland's workforce held in the Science Gallery at Trinity College. It was a platform to give a multistakeholder perspective on the way education is going. It looked at business, teacher and student needs to equip Ireland's next generation with the necessary skills to remain competitive as a country and as a workforce. 

Taoiseach Enda Kenny was quoted as saying at the event "In the next decade with nano technology, robotics, genetics and the internet and biotech, these changes are coming rapidly and if we can't adapt our educational system to be able to deal with that and to ride those waves of change we have a problem and we do down the future in the sense of the capacity and future for our young people to actually compete and challenge internationally against their peers around the world". 


Peter Hamilton of GM Intel Performance Learning Solutions stated that "we need an education policy that matches our national strategy to be a smart system".Jerome Morrisey, the Director  at the National Center For Technology In Education said that "technology and it's integration into the everyday work of schooling is a major catalyst for change, for bringing about the kind of change which we all universally acknowledge are the needs of the future". Regina Moran, CEO of Fujitsu Ireland argued that "we need to have an unrealistic ambition for our education system and aim for the stars". She also stated how technology "is a huge step forward for disabled students in terms of access to education. It's in every aspect of our lives so why isn't it embedded in our schools?".. Tommy Walshe, President of the National Parents Council post primary mentioned that "when students walk into a classroom they power down because they are so used to technology".  


Some warnings were also given about how our education system is meeting the challenges of the knowledge economy of the future.Tony Donahue of IBEC warned that "despite the individual examples of good practice that have been mentioned, I would argue that these have not been systemised and the sort of aspirations we have around Junior Cert reform, around a new entry system for 3rd Level, around CPD for teachers; they are fine aspirations but I think there is a major challenge in turning them into a reality".Tony Kelly, CEO of Demonware cited  the 2011 Hope Livingston Review which mentioned that "only 5% of parents realised that Physics and Statistics were vital components for a career in a high-tech job, particuarly in the likes of video games and more worringly for me, only 15% of career guidance teachers were aware of that fact". Padraig O'Murchu of Intel quoted a UNESCO report "which says that basic education is no longer sufficient to solve the grand global challenges of food, water, security, energy provision, infrastructure and healthcare provision, for that Science, Engineering, Technology and Maths is required".

Transforming Education in Ireland - Intel Open Forum event

Uploaded by on 4 Jul 2011

Here is a report below by RTE's Laura Fletcher on the recruitment challenges facing computing employers as well as looking at job opportunities in Ireland. The report highlights how there needs to be more of an emphasis on Programming and includes interviews by representatives of DCU, IT Tallaght, Google Ireland and Paddy Power.

RTE Report on Computing Courses and Employment Opportunities in Ireland, 23/04/2009 

 Uploaded by on 24 Apr 2009

Tourism in 2011 in Ireland has been getting some interesting reviews. According to the video below by failte Ireland, Frommers Guide 2011 has voted Ireland "Favourite holiday destination" in the world. Dublin has been awarded the UNESCO City of Literature (the 4rth city ever in the world). Ireland has also topped the Lonely Planet list of world's friendliest countries and Cork has been voted one of top ten cities in the world. Lonely Planet also voted Irish bars to be best in the world. According to the World Bank, Ireland is one of the top ten places to do business. Tourism generated €5 billion for the Irish economy and Ireland hosted the European Surfing championship in 2011. Walks in Ireland were voted the best in the world by National Geographic. Guide de Routarde has said that the Irish dining experience is as good, if not better than anywhere else in the world. IAGTO also voted Ireland as the top "European Golf Destination of the year 2011" hosting the 2011 Solheim Cup. Ireland is also a top tourism destination for Chinese visitors. Nightlife has been voted in the top ten in the world by Trip Advisor. Bill Clinton has stated that "Ireland is one of the best brands in the world. You have to build it and nurture it".

Failte Ireland Tourism 2011 

 Uploaded by on 27 Jan 2011

The Global Irish Economic Forum of 2011 saw a gathering of Enda Kenny, Bill Clinton, former President Mary McAleese, John McColgan, Bono, Gabriel Byrne, Denis Cumins, Michael Noonan, John Hartnett, Helen Lambert, Eamon gilmore, Dara O'Briain and Colm Tóibín and many others who discussed the future for the global Irish and the challenges which face Ireland.

Gallery: Global Irish Economic Forum 2011 

 Uploaded by on 9 Oct 2011

A jobs recruitment initiative has been set up by IDA Ireland and Connect Ireland to attract international investment into Ireland. The Government announced it to be part of the "Succeed in Ireland" campaign by IDA Ireland in March 2012 which is part of the government's Action Plan For Jobs. Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said that the initiative has the possibility to incentivise people around the owrld, including the Irish around the world to be Ireland's "eyes and ears"on the global stage as well as delivering new jobs and investment.

Connect Ireland Who do you know?

  Uploaded by on 6 Mar 2012

 A promotional video by Martin Sheen, Bill Clinton and Saoirse Ronan can be seen at this link

 600 of America's best companies have located to Ireland as can be seen from the video below

AmCham.mp4 

 
Uploaded by on 7 Mar 2012

 

Friday 9 March 2012

The Irish Video Games Industry

One major growth area in Ireland has been in the video games industry. One of the very best information sources for this sector can be found at www.siliconrepublic.com. 
Here is a useful article on what it takes to break into the games industry in Ireland

This blog will look at significant industry happenings and careers in gaming as well as a history of games. The content is as much for parents of students as it is for students who may not be aware of significant factors relating to the industry. The Programme for Government has included a commitment to support the digital games industry and to promote Ireland as a gaming hub. Tom Cusack,  a leading figure in the department for high-potential startups in Communications Software, Media & Entertainment Services at Enterprise Ireland has stated that “Ireland has developed a strong reputation in this space, and there is a lot of excitement around it, our own indigenous companies like Havok, Demonware and Jolt … we have seen a huge influx in foreign direct investment, which has created that hub or buzz around Ireland in the games space" (Epoch Times 2011)


Ireland is marketing itself as a digital hub for I.T., social media and cloud computing. The video that I directed and edited included below is called Ireland 2012 - A Gamechanger   and gives an overview of those sectors in 2012 as well as how education is increasingly starting to focus on I.T. and mobile technology such as iPads in the classroom.

Ireland 2012 - A Gamechanger 


Directed and edited by Marcus Howard, Communications lecturer in O'Fiaich College and owner of the blog http://irish21stcenturystudents.blogspot.com/

Here is an RTE report from the 2012 Games Fleadh which took place in LIT in Thurles.

 

Games Fleadh 2012 on RTE News.

 Uploaded by on 16 Mar 2012


Here is a video overview of the gaming industry in Ireland which was presented at Gateway Ireland.

Gaming in Ireland

 
Uploaded by on 27 May 2010

The games industry has overtaken the dvd industry and is estimated to be valued at €48 billion. The IDA is expecting a 50% increase over the next two years and a report by government think-tank Forfas have said that the growth in gaming produced numerous opportunities for growth in Ireland although we are competing with Scotland and the UK to attract a games hub in Ireland (Independent 2011).    The 110 page Forfas Report can be found at this link which looks at the Games Sector In Ireland


A recent RTE report on the gaming industry in Ireland in the video below (after the headlines if you skip 1 minute in), deal with the recent release of one of the world's most popular games Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 3. Reporter Conor Brophy investigates how Irish companies like Demonware are developing the technology used in these games. The video features an interview with Tony Kelly CEO of Demonware and Paul Hayes, Communications Officer of Games Ireland.

"The Irish Gaming Industry", RTE News, Wednesday, 9th of November 2011 

 Uploaded by on 10 Nov 2011

Big Fish Games, based in Mahon in Cork, is a company being promoted by IDA Ireland as a case study for Ireland being a good place to invest. The link to the video can be found at  IDA Ireland Case Study: Big Fish Games  

Here is also a video link to a video about why Ireland is becoming the Internet Capital of Europe  

According to the Irish Examiner, Paul Breslin CEO of Popcap Games has highlighted that with the right tax incentives, Ireland could become the digital capital of Europe,

Here is a step by step video guide from Videojug regarding how to get a career in the gaming industry

Here is a video interview with Ruben Morales, who explains how he got hired for God Of War 3 as well as mentioning the programs he uses on a daily basis as a Cinematic Artist and advice for those looking to get into the games industry.

How To Get Job In Video Game Industry: Interview with Ruben Morales (from God Of War 3)

 Uploaded by on 27 Jan 2011

Here is a video from top game designers worldwide offering advice on how to get into the industry. They discuss the benefits of getting a degree, making a mod and just getting out there and doing it. You can view the video at the link IGN's Top 100 Game Developers: Industry Advice - How to Get Started

The video games industry is not all fun and games. Here is a video made by someone who used to work in video games which has received over 220,000 hits on Youtube. It casts a rather sobering light on what working in the video games industry entails.

So You Want to Work in the Video Game Industry

 Uploaded by on 18 Nov 2010

Here is an insightful video from by the Global Head of Employment Brand made at the 2008 Swansea International Animation Festival. The video is over 50 minutes long however important topics such as what games designers do and what skills you need to have to be one as well as what is games design is covered in his presentation.

'Mum, Dad, I want to be a Game Designer' 

 Uploaded by on 7 Jan 2009

Here is a video from Barry O'Neill of Games Ireland, discussing the future potential of the Irish Games Industry

David Sweeney, CEO of Games Ireland has stated that  “Ireland's rich reservoir of talent, technique and tenacity mean that it is now perfectly placed to play a leading role in Europe's video-game industry, The Forfás report today is a clear signpost for the kind of Games Incentive Package that Ireland will develop and offer to the fast-changing industry to become the best place to develop games by 2016.” (Silicon Republic 2011)

 

Games like World of Warcraft give players the means to save worlds, and incentive to learn the habits of heroes. What if we could harness this gamer power to solve real-world problems? Jane McGonigal says we can, and explains how at Ted.

Jane McGonigal: Gaming can make a better world 

 Uploaded by on 17 Mar 2010