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■ EDUCATION: NEWS
Security sector gets own recruitment firm
By Gordon Smith
security projects. not only be sourcing Irish security
Security Careers founder, Owen professionals but will also be looking
O’Connor, said the new firm would for security talent from across Europe
SECURITY Careers, a specialist address what has been a historical gap and the United States,” added
recruitment firm for IT security pro- in the market. “In the past, it has been O’Connor.
fessionals, has been launched to serve difficult to hire security professionals Owen O’Connor is one of Ireland’s
the growing number of Irish organisa- in Ireland, not because of scarcity, but leading security experts, having
tions looking to improve IT security because traditional recruitment agen- worked in the area for over 12 years in
and avoid security breaches. cies have struggled to identify suitable the technology, financial services and
The launch comes at a time when candidates, assess their skills and pharmaceutical sectors. In 2003, he
there is more focus than ever on IT place them in the right organisations,” formed the Irish chapter of the
security and data protection issues. he said. “Information security has Information Systems Security
Several asset theft and security inci- become such a broad and complex Association (ISSA), an international
dents across the public and private field that a new approach is required.” professional body for security person-
sectors have come to light recently. Security Careers focuses only on the nel. Since 2005, he has assisted with
International research shows many IT security market and will work with the development and running of the
organisations are prioritising security Irish security professionals, as well as Centre for Cybercrime Investigation
but struggling to find experienced and helping IT staff to move into security at UCD. His work with UCD has
trained professionals. According to and attracting foreign security per- included authoring the ISSA/UCD
Ernst & Young’s Global Information sonnel to Ireland. “Although it may Irish Cybercrime Survey and con-
Security Survey 2007, more than two seem an unusual time to launch any ducting training in digital investiga-
thirds of Irish respondents (69pc) said type of recruiting firm, the demand tions and computer forensics for law
the skills issue was the greatest chal- from Irish companies and multina- enforcement officials from around the
lenge to the delivery of information tional firms is so strong that we will world.
Top firms champion tech careers
By Marie Boran
Technologies, Oracle, Apple and Cisco. Raleigh hopes that if secondary
There is a fear that Ireland’s science schools students see and hear success
and tech graduates will not be in demand. stories among young people working
FOLLOWING somewhat disappoint- However, both ICT Ireland and in technology, this will motivate them
ing results in this year’s Leaving Cert Engineers Ireland say this initiative is to consider a similar career.
maths and the hard sciences, along in response to concerns in the indus- In this vein, Microsoft Ireland has
with a low uptake in these subjects in try that the sector will actually be also taken the initiative to inspire
the recent CAO offerings for third undersupplied by graduates in the youngsters to head for a career in the
level, there has been a call to arms years to come and that this is already technology sector with the introduc-
among firms in the Irish technology beginning to happen. tion of the Digiteenz camp, which will
sector to cultivate an interest in high- A recent report from the Expert be held at its Leopardstown campus
tech careers among school goers. Group on Future Skills Needs pre- on 8 October this year.
Over 50 technology firms have dicted that the tech sector will Of course, inspired or not, there are
joined up with ICT Ireland and continue to supply jobs and growth for always salary levels to think of and
Engineers Ireland for a ‘Champions our economy based on previous John Power, director general of
Programme’ that will see young peo- growth and trends across IT, soft- Engineers Ireland, pointed out that
ple with successful high-tech careers ware, electronics and web-based engineering salaries are quite compet-
in these firms go out and visit some industry. itive: “Our recent salary survey high-
250 secondary schools around the Kathryn Raleigh, director of ICT lights that graduate engineers earn up
country to tell students about their Ireland, said that “a steady supply of to ¤31,000 in their first year and there
jobs and why they enjoy the challenges high-class technology graduates is are currently over 5,000 engineering
a career in this sector brings. vital” in order to maintain the current jobs being advertised in Ireland.
The technology firms include presence of technology firms we “The salary is there, the job oppor-
Google, Dell, Ericsson, IBM, Intel, already have here in Ireland, and also tunities are there. All we require now
Analog Devices, Microsoft, Iona to attract new employers. is engineers.”
78 Knowledge Ireland September 2008
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