Representatives from Higher Education and Industry met today as part of a Government plan to increase future ICT enrolments. ICT has been identified as an area of particular economic significance in Northern Ireland. This is in recognition of the fact that as well as being a sizeable industry in its own right, it also underpins many other sectors such as financial services and healthcare. This event, organised by the Department for Employment and Learning, and held at the Stormont Hotel, is an important deliverable of the recently launched ICT Future Skills Action Plan. Employment and Learning Minister, Sir Reg Empey, welcomed the workshop and said: “It is important that the Higher Education sector works with industry to ensure that employers’ skills needs are met. In order to grow and develop, our software companies need an ever increasing number of highly skilled graduates in key disciplines, such as computer science and software engineering, yet university enrolments in these subjects are falling and drop out rates are high. We must do our utmost to overcome these issues if we are to benefit from an improved flow of skilled workers in future years.”
 
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21 October 2008
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