‘Severe’ ICT skills shortage highlighted by 4,500 vacancies

The significant level of job vacancies in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector highlights a “severe” shortage of suitably skilled applicants in the Irish workforce, a new study has warned.

In its ‘ICT Skills Audit’, the non-profit training promotion agency, Fastrack to IT (FIT), estimates that there are 4,500 vacancies in Ireland’s ICT sector. These are not being filled, because of “the severely limited supply of suitably skilled applicants”. The study, based on a survey of 38 IT multinationals and SMEs, shows that many of the vacancies are at the intermediate-skills level, and could be filled after training programmes of six to 24 months.

“We have been increasingly concerned at the growing skill shortages in the sector, while recognising an increasing, and untapped, opportunity to create a talent pipeline comprising of those job-seekers with transferable skills from declining sectors,” FIT’s chief executive, Peter Davitt, said.