Student choices -The science of securing our future

IT HAS been long recognised that manufacturing industries face a very challenging future in this part of the world.

Government policy has acknowledged the unavoidable consequences of that sea change. It had no choice, the evidence was there for everybody to see as factory after factory watched its workload being moved eastwards to lower-cost economies.

Traditional businesses that sustained thousands of good, rewarding jobs closed one after another, unable to produce goods viably.

This process is no longer confined to what we used to call heavy industry. Dell, one of the great hi-tech employers in Limerick, are completing a production plant in Poland.

A significant proportion of the Limerick staff come from eastern Europe and when that new plant is running at full speed it is entirely possible that a substantial portion of the operation will be moved to one of the EU’s lower-cost economies.

Enterprise Minister Micheál Martin has championed the cause of the knowledge-based economy as the best way to secure high-end employment.

There have been, and remain, infrastructural difficulties that are hard to accept — access to broadband is still very poor compared to many of our competitor countries. Transport remains a huge problem, especially along the western seaboard, a situation exacerbated by Aer Lingus’s decision to end its Shannon to Heathrow service.

A shortage of science graduates is another difficulty to be overcome if we are to secure a future based on intellectual achievement. That is why figures detailing the popularity — or, more accurately, the unpopularity — of science studies from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) are such a cause for concern.

Done on a county-by-county basis, they show that in the county where science is most popular — Cork — barely one in five students choose to study it. In Laois, where it is least popular, not even one in 10 people take up the option.

These are not the figures to inspire — or staff — a Celtic Silicon Valley. Neither will they sustain that old reliable of our economy, one that was one of the foundation stones of the Celtic Tiger — American firms looking for access to the EU and delighted with a well-educated population which can speak English.

Interestingly, the HEA report identified a correlation between areas where science is most popular and the location of hi-tech industries. Students exposed to the industries had the wit to identify them as potential employers.

The Irish Business and Employers’ Confederation has already voiced concern about our education system saying that business wants individuals who are “adaptable, can think for themselves and have an appetite to learn”.

IBEC director general Turlough O’Sullivan stressed the need to put more focus on the social, emotional, physical, aesthetic and cognitive development of a child.

“Apart from important basic literacy, numeracy and IT skills, there is a need to develop people-related skills, such as communication, interpersonal and customer service skills,” said Mr O’Sullivan.

HEA chief executive Tom Boland said that encouraging second-level students to pursue science and technology courses was essential. “We must look at addressing the reasons as to why more students are not considering study in these fields,” he said.

It should not be too difficult or, more importantly, take too long, to establish that and apply the solution once the problem is identified.

OECD figures released this week show that Irish 15-year-olds scored significantly above average among teenagers in 29 developed countries on science tests carried out last year, so it is not a problem of potential.

It cannot be too difficult to encourage bright young people to study the how and why of everything we do. That this study would underpin our economic future is a bonus.