Vol. 480 No. 2
52 Mr. Higgins (Mayo) asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise and Employment the new initiatives, if any, she has planned for developing training places to meet the manpower needs of the information technology industries; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [13736/97]
I am fully aware of the urgent requirement to address the skills needs of the information technology industries.
On 11 February last, the Government decided on a package of measures to address the skills needs of these industries. The Government's action plan on skills included, inter alia, the establishment of a bidding process with educational and training institutions, both in the public and private sectors, to identify the most cost effective way of providing an extra 1,000 software graduates per annum and 750 technicians places per annum in electronic, electrical, mechanical and production engineering.
A steering committee, chaired by Mr. Noel Lindsay, Chairman of the Higher Education Authority, was established to oversee the bidding process. My Department participated in the Lindsay committee in the preparation of its report which has now been finalised. In this regard, I have been in touch with my colleague, the Minister for Education, and it is our intention to shortly announce the Government's response.
Outside the higher education sector, to which the Lindsay report confined itself, further proposals are being developed. FÁS is actively engaged with leading firms in the electronics industry in the design, development and delivery of innovative approaches to technician training, for example, traineeships. FÁS has also been actively involved in delivering urgent responses to the need to train for languages requirements in the fast developing telemarketing sector.
