Language skills key to EA recruitment

People with language skills are high on the wanted list for gaming company EA after they announced a major jobs investment in Galway yesterday.

The company is expanding its workforce there by 300, mostly in its customer support and services divisions.

Some businesses have expressed concern in the past about the availability of candidates with the right language skills.

Dylan Collins is an internet entrepreneur, and sits on the government's clustering development team for video gaming.

He says Ireland needs to make sure it can meet the needs of these companies in a number of areas: "There's an engineering drought everywhere around the world, from Silicon Valley to Dublin to Moscow.

"In community management and community service management, it's difficult to find everybody you're looking for too. There'll be plenty of opportunities for people who want to join companies like EA in Ireland.

"It's really up to us as a country to figure out how to get more qualified people into these positions."