Plans under way to re-skill workforce with help of WIT

A MAJOR plan to help identify training and alternative careers for redundant Talk Talk workers is under way at Waterford Institute of Technology.

The college will work with local councils, state agencies and workers themselves to help make an easy transition to new employment.

It is planned to provide opportunities for direct access to WIT’s programmes and other resources, with a dedicated information session for Talk Talk employees at an information evening for part-time students next Wednesday.

“Unfortunately we are no stranger to job losses in Waterford and it is important that we remain positive,” said WIT registrar Dr Derek O’Byrne.

The college’s acting president, Tony McFeely, said employment remains strong in the ICT sector and there are vacancies for qualified staff. He also reiterated the need for a new type of university, responsive to the needs and demands of the current economic situation which he said WIT was committed to developing.

WIT is expected to apply with Cork Institute of Technology to merge under the new brand of technological university set out in the government higher education strategy published in January.

Meanwhile, research for Dublin City University has found employers are putting more focus on finding graduates who are flexible, adaptable and driven by results.

But barely half the 100 businesses surveyed by RedC consider their employees to be driven by results and just one-in-three were satisfied with how enquiring or enterprising their workforces are.

DCU is changing the way it shapes its graduates under the Generation 21 programme, aiming to make them more creative, solution oriented, effective at communicating, globally engaged, active leaders and committed to continuous learning.

“The next generation needs to be prepared for lifetime employability and it’s our responsibility to ensure we’ve done all we can to make sure they are developing the attributes that we know employers want today, no matter how uncertain the future,” said DCU president, Professor Brian MacCraith.

But while the initiative aims to address employer concerns about finding suitable graduates, Higher Education Authority chairman, John Hennessy, raised concerns about the level of engagement between researchers, higher education and business. Not alone must academics involve students more in a research ethos through their teaching, he said, but engagement between higher education with the “outside world” of business, innovation and creativity needs to be increased.