Irish companies will soon be able to bridge their own tech skills gap by enrolling their staff members in degree-level ICT courses for free.

For companies who feel like their employees are lacking in technological proficiency, they can now send them on an ICT course for free.

The National College of Ireland (NCI) is offering a number of free courses tailored to areas that are suffering from a talent gap, such as fintech, cybersecurity and data analytics.

There has been a serious skills gap in the tech industry, primarily in areas that have grown at an exponential rate before the education sector had a chance to develop relevant qualifications.

Now, tech giants are crying out for talented candidates with skills in data, fintech, DevOps and cybersecurity, but there aren’t enough people with the right skills or qualifications to actually fill the roles.

Our educators have been playing catch up over the last few years, from degrees in cybersecurity to intentions to bring coding into primary school classrooms.

But with a more immediate need afoot, NCI is attempting to solve the problem with tech courses that will allow employees to upskill while still in full-time work as part of Springboard Plus, the initiative set up by the government.

“Many people probably think Springboard Plus courses are only available to the unemployed,” said Robert Ward, marketing director at NCI. “But we are telling companies no, these ICT courses are available to your employees too.”

The tech courses are fully accredited, internationally recognised and are free of charge for qualified applicants looking to upskill, regardless of their employment status.

There are both evening classes and online courses available. Employees can upskill and achieve a level eight higher diploma in a variety of tech-focused areas including: data analytics, fintech, app development and cloud computing.

Several of the NCI courses have a closing date for applications of 5 January 2017, so those interested in upskilling with a part-time tech course should apply as soon as possible.

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