Colleges adding to skills shortage, say firms | Irish Examiner.
So apparently colleges are not producing graduates with sufficient (read, ready to add value to companies) skills. Paypal cant find people with foreign language skills, and Glen Dimplex cant find something or other.
leaving aside the confusion between what third level is for (other than keeping the unemployment numbers down) and what on the job training is for, I find it amusing. If there are such skill shortages, and companies find it hard to fill specialist roles, here is a radical idea. Train. Your. Staff. Yourself.
Training someone is not educating them. Moreover, training someone to say a Graduate Diploma in Multilingual Helpdesk Skills is perhaps best done by a company that liases with a local HE institution. But it will be of limited use outside the helpdesk environment, where other skills might be needed. Of course, that would cost companies money. Much better if you can simply mooch off the taxpayer and complain that your staff arent being trained for private gain at public expense.
Brian M. Lucey 
Paypal apparently want people fluent in Dutch & Nordic languages and are ‘forced’ to import them from abroad. These languages are not taught in Ireland – nor indeed much outside their home countries. Perhaps Paypal could have foreseen this!
Nor is it a simple matter to turn construction workers into IT specialists
Forget about Universities Brian, according to most radio pundit experts, we should be teaching ….languages/science/engineering/computer programming/internet safety/sexuality/fitness/diet/civics/suicide awareness….in primary school…all the while the numbers are increasing…
It seems everyone is an expert as to what educators should be doing these days. As if we are doing nothing as it is!
you forgot philosophy…