The it@cork European tech cluster has introduced a new adopt-a-school scheme that will see household tech names like EMC, IBM, Trend Micro, Quest and McAfee select schools and help them to digitise.
At an event this week at City Hall in Cork, it@cork revealed the programme that will see many of the organisation’s tech members in the region select a school to support with IT infrastructure.
it@cork chairman Denis Collins told Siliconrepublic.com that the programme is designed to be flexible and the participating firms can support their adopted school in a number of ways.
This can range from providing software development classes, donating useful IT equipment, providing IT support, providing guest speakers for classes interested in IT careers, offering work experience to transition-year students or helping to set up CoderDojo events for local children interested in learning how to write software code, the poetry of the 21st century.
Excited about the potential impact of the programme, Michael Loftus, chairman of the it@cork Education Subcommittee, said he was hopeful the challenges the industry faces today in recruiting IT staff will be a distant memory in the future.
Collins added: “the economies that continue to produce the talent to create new technology-based solutions will be those that succeed in an increasingly competitive world.”
“It is important that we in Cork and Ireland recognise this fact and ‘act as one’ to ensure that our region is recognised as a European technology cluster as well as for its world-class IT companies and innovative approach to education in IT.
“The achievement of success in this context will ensure that the IT industry will continue to thrive and that our region will produce IT talent into the future that will differentiate us from our competitors.”
The it@cork, European Tech Cluster Adopt-a-School Programme will be discussed further at the upcoming Technology in Business Conference on 29 May in the Maryborough Hotel, Douglas, Cork.
