From Belfast Telegraph - "Training is the key to our long-term economic prosperity"

"Invest Northern Ireland and IDA Ireland have recognised the pivotal role of training in the North West Business Technology Zone (NWBTZ) that they are now marketing proactively around the world."

I'm all for training but I'd love to see what the five or ten year plan for this would be. The likes of Jobserve and the Job Centre Online website don't really list many IT/HiTech related positions, the ones they do suffer from the same two problems. Firstly, because of the large amount of hi tech professionals available in the marketplace in the UK the minimum qualification level is basically a third level qualification (a degree for example). As I mentioned in an earlier post my encounter with a large insurance firm was short and swift as I was expecting. Secondly many employers use the services of recruitment agencies, some are moral upstanding companies who will heartily represent you and your skills (as long as you have a degree in a high tech industry) and try their hardest to get you place. The others, naming no names, will do their upmost to make job postings up in the name of a paying client. I've seen it done to many times. So much so that I won't deal with them, I was on the verge of setting up my own high tech recruitment firm but thought better of it.

What training do NWBTZ have in mind? To get up to degree standard for a lot of potential 30+ years of age employees means a two year access course and then a three year degree. In five years time you can then do a job by which time the tax incentives will have dried up and the company will have closed up shop for another location. Just take one look at Dell, Dublin and the Polish relocation. Concentrating on science and technology is all well and good but I just don't see what the strategy is.

I'm hoping that Dr Bill McGinnis, who hopes to bridge the gap between employers and government, can see the long term vision on how this will work. While I'm enthused about the possibilities it could open up to the North West I remain with a slightly cynical mind about the role of the hitech companies in Northern Ireland. I rode out the dotcom bust in 2000/2001 and I really don't want to watch it again.