Conference tallis::celt

566.0. "SKILLED WORKFORCE IN IRELAND" by CEILI::DARCY () Wed May 10 1989 15:29

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Note 565.0                SKILLED WORKFORCE IN IRELAND                   1 reply
CSG002::ONEILL "Its a LONG way to Tipperary..."     381 lines   9-MAY-1989 10:59
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    	This is a very long artical, but worth the read!
    
    	Ann
    
    
    
Reversing the Trend
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Ireland is known to have highly educated young graduates and a skilled 
workforce. Many of them, however, emigrate to the UK, continental 
Europe, the US or Australia because they cannot find appropriate jobs 
in their country.

The article below, written by Barry McCall for the February issue of 
"Management", the magazine of the Irish Management Institute, 
describes the efforts made by the Irish authorities to reverse the 
trend by creating the climate and infrastructure to help their 
academics to set up their own enterprises.

Digital is one of the largest foreign employers in Ireland. In 
addition to the sales and service organizations, we have major 
manufacturing and engineering operations (both hardware and software) 
in Galway and Clonmel and the growing "European External Resources" 
group in Dublin. Their links with local universities and polytechnics 
are excellent. This includes hosting co-op students and systematically 
recruiting graduates, jointly identifying the need for new courses and 
designing and running them (for example a "Master in Industrial 
Engineering" with University College Galway, and an M.Sc. course in 
Computer Design with Trinity College Dublin), and research cooperation 
(for new manufacturing processes, robotics and automated inspection).

Nowadays and in our area of technology, the character of work is such 
that we can move the work to where the people are rather than moving 
the people to where the work is. In contrast to heavy industries, 
mineral extraction, etc., software development and system design can 
be done virtually anywhere. For future engineering investment we 
should therefore consider countries like Ireland (and the other 
"marginal" European countries). This would reverse the trend and help 
relieve the congestion in the overcrowded European "silicon valleys".



Industry from Education
-----------------------
(Barry McCall, ^&Management\&, February 1989)

Not many years ago the Industrial Development Authority produced a 
promotional poster depicting Ireland's population as a young, highly 
educated workforce eager and willing to work for the world's leading 
companies should they choose to set up in Ireland. Sadly, the campaign 
turned into something of a sick joke.

A newspaper reporter decided to investigate what had happened to the 
twenty or so graduates pictured on the poster which was at the 
centerpiece of the campaign. All had either emigrated or were 
unemployed. Red faces all around, and not just for the IDA(1). The 
Government was held up to ridicule and our entire job creation policy 
was called into question.

The criticisms of such reports as Telesis were dusted off and leveled 
once again. Ireland has possibly the youngest and best educated 
workforce in Europe and yet it couldn't find jobs for them - not even 
the most highly qualified.

Things started changing almost immediately. A greater stress was 
placed on the higher levels of the high-tech sector - not simply low 
level assembly projects but ones which would mean high levels of 
skilled and graduate employment. But there is a natural limit to the 
amount of jobs which can be created simply by throwing money at 
existing and new industry. Our own industry was, in many cases, at 
best surviving and foreign industry was already aware of Irish 
grant-aid packages and of our young, well-educated workforce. This is 
where the universities and other third level institutions come in.

In the past, our universities have seen themselves as having a role to 
play in education and research - but nothing else. They provided the 
people for industry to employ, they did not provide the industry. 
Similarly the development agencies saw their roles as assisting 
industry and so providing jobs. There was little interplay between the 
two, if any. And there was never really a need for any.

Universities primarily operated in the area of the humanities, arts, 
law, medicine and so on. Industry, on the other hand, was primarily 
manufacturing oriented and had little need for these skills, except 
perhaps in management structures. It is only in the last twenty years 
that the areas of science and technology have really taken off in both 
areas. Whole new departments of computer science, microelectronics and 
biotechnology were founded in third level colleges while whole new 
industries came into existence here.

What didn't happen, however, is almost more important. Very few of the 
new industries were being started up by our own home-grown talent. 
With the possible exception of computer software we were still in the 
position of exporting many of our most talented people or simply 
watching them go to work for somebody else. We still had the problem 
where our small companies could not afford the expense of setting up 
their own research and development departments consequently 
restricting their growth, and in many cases contributing to their 
failure. Access to the resources of our universities would undoubtedly 
have helped.

The fledgling Department of Science and Technology has been set up to 
cure at least part of this problem. Loosely speaking its brief is to 
create an environment for industrial growth in the science and 
technology area and it has selected two basic ways of doing this. 
Drawing on the resources available in the third level colleges and 
assisting existing industry.

Its initial budget for 1987 was a relatively paltry #2 million(2). In 
1988 it received #3.1 million but #8 million has been earmarked for it 
in 1989. At a time when cutbacks are the order of the day, this is one 
of the few areas which has seen a real increase in expenditure. This 
underlines both the importance attached to this area and the success 
of the Department's initiatives so far.

Several programs have been set up and, although still at an early 
stage, each has proved relatively successful so far. The National 
Biotechnology Program - or Bioresearch Ireland as it is marketed under 
- is perhaps the best known of these programs.

This was established 18 months ago with the aim of commercializing the 
biotechnology research being undertaken in universities and research 
institutes. The purpose of this was to allow the organization to act 
as a contract research firm and actually sell these facilities to 
industry. In other words, to allow the access which was missing in the 
past and to create industries from home-grown talent.

What were termed as three 'centers of excellence' were set up under 
the program in its first year. These were the National Diagnostic 
Center at the UCG(3), the National Food Biotechnology Center at 
UCC(4), and the National Cell and Tissue Culture Center at NIHE 
Dublin(5). These were set up with funding of #1.5 million. This has 
now been increased to #2.25 million to provide for the establishment 
of two new centers at UCD(6) and Trinity College. UCD will have the 
National Center for Agricultural and Veterinary Biotechnology while 
Trinity will have the Center for Pharmaceutical Biotechnology.

The success of this venture need only be gauged on its performance so 
far this year. It had a projected income of the whole year of #400,000 
- it has earned #1.4 million already. The intention for this project 
is that it will be self-financing within five years and continue to 
grow from there.

One of its most striking successes in providing service to industry as 
well as creating jobs has been in the Galway center. The US based 
pharmaceutical giant, Cambridge Medical, was looking for a facility in 
Europe to test and develop three new products. Galway won this 
contract and the end result was an announcement by Cambridge of its 
intention to set up its European manufacturing plant for the products 
in Galway.

The second area chosen for special attention by the new department was 
advanced manufacturing technology, or AMT. There were perceived 
deficiencies in Irish industry regarding the quality and 
sophistication of design and manufacturing equipment and processes. 
This program was given an initial budget of only #200,000, this has 
now been increased to #500,000. Four centers have been set up at UCD, 
TCD(7), UCG and NIHE Limerick.

UCD is involved in the mecatronics area. Run from the Mechanical 
Engineering Department it specializes in two main areas, design and 
manufacturing systems and special machines and systems. Research and 
development, design, construction, implementation, and test and 
training facilities are all available at the center. Trinity is 
involved in the vision and sensor area. It is involved in the design, 
development and deployment of sensory control systems for 
manufacturing processes and quality control. Galway specializes in all 
aspects of computer integrated manufacturing while NIHE Limerick is 
involved in research in the general area of manufacturing technology 
for the manufacturing industry. These centers work in roughly the same 
way as the ones involved in biotechnology, as contract research 
centers providing access to university facilities at the same time as 
creating jobs.

The third major program already initiated by the Department is the 
Technology Innovation Program. This has three main strands. The South 
East Pilot Program, the Teaching Industries Program and the RTC(8) 
industry partnership program. This will have a total budget of #1.7 
million in 1989.

The first of these has been well documented with some of its successes 
receiving considerable attention already. These include a new 
commercial testing laboratory at the Waterford Regional Technical 
College and a strawberry planting and harvesting project using the 
latest technology in Clonroche, County Wexford. The main thrust of 
this scheme is to regionalize the initiatives in the science and 
technology area so that they can take advantage of grants available 
under the EC structural funds. Although the south east scheme has 
apparently been a success it has yet to be duplicated anywhere else. 
One interesting proposal to come out of it, is that Waterford Airport 
should be upgraded to facilitate Boeing 737-class jets at a cost of #4 
million. Perhaps this will receive some favor in Europe.

The Teaching Companies Program has received a lot of interest because 
of its undoubted benefits in terms of employment and industrial 
development. Under this scheme, a company takes on a suggested 
graduate to help it with research and development or a similar area. 
The Government funds this to the tune of 75 percent, 50 percent and 30 
percent in its first three years.

The RTC Industry Partnership Scheme is the section of this part of the 
program which seems to excite the current Minister most. Dr. Sean 
McCarthy has actually gone as far as breaking the law to put it in 
place, and he's proud of it. 'The RTCs are specifically precluded 
under the 1930 VEC Act from participating in contract work. I had to 
break the rules when I appointed industrial liaison officers in 
several of them, but it had to be done', he says. 'Mary O'Rourke is 
working on the necessary amendments to the legislation and I hope to 
see everything regularized shortly'.

The basic idea behind this is to set up commercial joint research 
projects with local industry in each region. Several have already been 
set up. The Carlow area, for example, has a few and Sligo is earmarked 
for a major investment in the coming year. This involves the 
moldmaking industry and #1.2 million is being invested in it. There 
are seven or eight companies in the area which have been targeted to 
benefit from the project and a target of 1,000 new jobs over the next 
five years has been set.

The other major area targeted by the Department is optoelectronics. 
This is the next wave of high-tech electronics. It relies on light 
fiber technology which is both cheaper and more reliable than 
traditional copper wire. One application for the technology is in 
telecommunications and Bord Telecom expects to import #35 million 
worth of this equipment over the next ten years. The world market is 
worth #6 billion every year and growing at the rate of 20 percent per 
annum. Like the high-tech industry in general, this is an area where 
Ireland can get in on the 'ground floor' and be as far advanced as any 
other country.

The intention with regard to this field is to set up a company on the 
lines of Bioresearch Ireland to coordinate the research and market it. 
Only time will tell if this will meet with the same degree of success 
as its prototype but Ireland's record in the electronics industry in 
general would seem to augur well.

This is the Government's initiative in the science and technology 
area. It is bringing the universities closer to industry and vice 
versa. It is also helping universities to generate much needed income 
to fund ongoing research programs endangered by Department of 
Education cutbacks. But what of the need to create and develop new 
industries from our academic and graduate population? It is one thing 
to develop an environment where existing industry can benefit from the 
resources, but it is another to create new industries from the same 
source.

Since the start-up of the IDA enterprise development program in 1978, 
over 60 percent of the companies started under it have been in what 
could loosely be described as the high-tech area - chemicals, 
electronics and other metals and engineering. Only 4 percent of these 
new enterprises were started by academics, 62 percent were started by 
managers. The IDA is now taking steps to redress this imbalance and 
recently hosted a conference entitled 'Campus Entrepreneurs - 
Academics in Business' to outline the problems faced and its plans for 
dealing with them.

Declan Murphy is the IDA executive with responsibility for this new 
program and it is his intention to have an industry center set up at 
every third level college in the country. 'Over the past ten years 150 
companies have been set up under the EDP(9). They have an average 
turnover of about #1 million and they employ a total of 3,000', he 
says. 'Some of our most successful indigenous industries such as 
Oglesby and Butler, Lake Electronics and Rangeland Meats have come 
through the program - naturally there is another side to the coin, 
almost 70 of the companies started under the EDP failed'.

According to Murphy only 28 projects have been set up by academics 
during this period, about ten through the EDP and the remainder 
through the international services program. 'We think there is a large 
untapped potential there and we intend to exploit it'.

He sees several ways of encouraging an expansion in this area. The 
first is by devoting more resources to it and changing the rules 
slightly. 'Academics are in academia because they want to be. Very few 
of them are frustrated businessmen. Before this we wouldn't have 
tolerated the notion of a part-time businessman but now we see it 
different. If the academic is bringing his particular skills into a 
new company and has set up an adequate professional management 
structure which allows him to continue with his first career, then 
that's fine by us'.

Other ideas in the pipeline are to get large companies to 'adopt' new 
small ones and to get retired businessmen to act as 'mentors' for 
others. 'We think this will help get things off the ground initially. 
Academics are not businessmen and the idea of going into business can 
frighten them. If we can provide them with assistance and expertise in 
the business area it makes it a lot less of a daunting prospect'.

It is the Campus Center initiative, however, where the real fruits 
should be borne. As part of the proactive approach decided on by the 
IDA, the authority is actually going out to the colleges instead of 
waiting for them to approach the authority. This means developing 
industry centers which can act both as liaison centers as well as 
providing small incubator style industrial units for the new 
enterprises.

Four centers have already been opened and three more are just about to 
come on stream. The first one was set up in Prussia Street in 1983 and 
it serves the Dublin Institute of Technology, primarily looking after 
Bolton Street, Kevin Street and Rathmines. It has two units in a 5,000 
sq.ft. building and our new companies have successfully started up 
there.

The center at UCG is 6,000 sq.ft. in area and is divided into eight 
units. To date it has provided a base for ten companies. UCD, despite 
being in its start-up phase, already has five units of its twelve 
occupied, while Trinity has full occupation in its 12. Dundalk, Sligo 
and Letterkenny RTCs each have six unit centers about to come on 
stream and includes a food process and research unit.

This  bringing of the mountain to Mohammed along with various other 
initiatives planned by both the Department and the IDA is a very good 
thing in itself - but will there be real benefits. Very much so, 
according to both Sean McCarthy and Declan Murphy.

According to McCarthy 'the universities have been turning out people 
who are very highly qualified but who can't make a bob for themselves 
in the outside world. We have 220 Irish engineers working for Philips 
in Eindhoven and we have hundreds of others all earning a fortune for 
companies in America and the UK. We need to keep all of that talent 
here and we've got to make sure that the academics have the support to 
start their own businesses - if we do that we will have excellent 
employment prospects for our graduates and we'll be able to keep our 
best people at home and upgrade our industry at the same time'.

Declan Murphy sees things in terms of hard and fast targets. 'We hope 
to have 100 companies up and running by 1993. We haven't any specific 
job targets for these companies but we think 1,000 would be a fairly 
realistic figure'. He also sees the campus centers initiative leading 
to greater things. One of the examples he cites is the Cambridge 
Science Park in the UK.

A science park is a collection of high technology industrial companies 
or research institutes in attractive, well-landscaped surroundings, 
developed to a very low density and situated near a major scientific 
university. NIHE Limerick has already made significant strides in this 
direction and perhaps exemplifies the reason for the existence of such 
parks - 'to act as a means of bringing suitable industry and applied 
research close to the sources of scientific progress.'

The Cambridge Park has over 60 companies operating on its 130 acres 
and its buildings range in size from 500 sq.ft. to 120,000 sq.ft. 
Literally thousands of jobs have been created on it and some of the 
world's leading high-tech companies have set up there. Perhaps the 
most impressive statistic, however, is the asset it has provided for 
the university in question, Trinity College Cambridge. The minimum 
value of the facility has been estimated at #60 million. And this has 
all happened in twenty years - beginning in quite similar 
circumstances to our own programs which have just started.

The programs are in operation, finance is being made available and 
some measure of success has already been achieved. Only time will tell 
if the thousands of jobs envisaged become a reality - only one thing 
is certain, any initiative aimed at plugging the brain drain and 
providing jobs in Ireland must be welcome.


Notes:

(1)     IDA = Irish Development Agency

(2)     1 Irish Punt = approx. 1.5 US $

(3)     UCG = University College Galway

(4)     UCC = University College Cork

(5)     NIHE = National Institute for Higher Education, now also called 
     "University"

(6)     UCD = University College Dublin

(7)     TCD = Trinity College Dublin

(8)     RTC = Regional Technical College

(9)     EDP = Enterprise Development Program

    

    
    
    	
    
    	Very informative George .... 
    
    
    	I thought notes 565.n pretty well summed it up for me    :-)
                       
    
    
    	
    
    	keVin
    

    Dear Celtic Thunder,
    
    You Clare people don't miss a trick do ya?
    
    -Yankee Clipper

    
    
                        Nothing but elections
                     (this is repeated in 565.3)
    This is at the core of the Irish national election crisis.
    In tandem with the European election the Irish govt.(Fianna Fail)
    called a General (ie.Parliamentary) election.
    Fianna Fail lost 4 seats (now down to 77 seats).
    An overall majority needs 83 a number which no single party in the
    state has reached since the layout of constituencies was placed
    in independant hands in 1981. 
    The fact that all political parties have to give in to small
    unrepresentative minorities on many issues lead to loss of
    control in public finances.Extemely high debt ensued and was brought
    under control mainly by consensus between the two major parties
    for the last two years.
    The resultant recovery plan is now jeopordised by this election
    result.
    The newly elected Dail (parliament) meets in 10 days to elect a
    Taoiseach(prime minister) but may not be able to do so.........
    It was mainly parties of the left that benefitted from this 
    election but we need more spending here like we need a hole in the
    head .National debt is currently 24 Billion Punt(7000 Punt per
    capita) and all income tax goes to service this debt.
    Income tax here is very high(56% after 9,000 for single people)
    Also add 7.5% insurance).
    This explains why a lot of people are leaving............