This has been a big week for careers stories, with a lot of great stuff coming in about jobs in STEM (science, tech, engineering and maths), initiatives encouraging young people to pursue careers in the digital sphere, and diversity in the tech industry.
It’s that time of year when students embarking on their college careers, and finishing them, are trying to decide, ‘What job should I do?’ This week, we looked at the range of graduate roles on offer in some of Ireland’s top tech employers.
We’re also keeping an eye — as we know you are, too — on the looming deadline for the submission of CAO application changes (next Wednesday, 1 July, at 5.15pm). With that approaching, we spoke to Margie McCarthy, head of Education and Public Engagement at Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), about what the tech industry can do to become a more visible career option for school-leavers. And we did some in-depth research into five career areas Leaving Cert graduates might like to switch to.
We also went a little more specific, and took a meme-laden look at what graphic designers do during their work day.
If you’re concerned about how the diversity gap in tech could affect you down the line, or how it’s affecting you now, some of the observations and advice from Inspirefest 2015’s Code: Debugging the Diversity Gap panel might allay some of your fears.
For those already working in the industry, we wrote about Coding Grace’s involvement with the Inspirefest Family Fringe. Coding Grace taught adults — novices and those looking to upskill — how to use programming language Python.
Of course, it’s not just about the grown-ups. Younger people were well-represented at the Fringe, with CoderDojo, Girls Hack Ireland and Mint Tek Circuits, among others, providing guidance and fun.
Furthermore, this week, The Digital Hub’s Future Creators Programme — which targets 13-16 year olds in Dublin’s Liberties area and aims to equip participants with digital skills, including coding, app development, digital photography, filmmaking and website development — announced that 90pc of respondents to their alumni survey now intend to continue into third-level education. Many will pursue careers in media studies, engineering, programming, games development and business.
And finally, if you’re now interested in finding a role in STEM, here’s some news that should give you a little extra confidence — more than 1,000 tech jobs were announced in Ireland during the month of June.
So that should be plenty to go around…
Fork in the road image, via Shutterstock
