NUI Galway, along with software industry partners, has secured funding from the Higher Education Authority to continue running its one-year higher diploma in software design and development, a conversion course targeted at graduates with limited or no IT experience.

The conversion course, which started in 2012, is targeted at helping to increase the supply of skilled graduates to work in the software industry in Ireland.

During the course, students will also get industry work experience to help start their careers in the software development field.

According to NUI Galway, those who enroll on the course will get a solid foundation in key software design knowledge, a choice of software architecture specialisation in either .NET or Java Enterprise, and a work placement with an industry partner in the Galway region.

The industry partners for the course will include Avaya, Ericsson, the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), Hewlett-Packard, Storm Technologies, The Marine Institute, Solano Tech NetFort Technologies, SourceDogg, Schneider Electric, Cisco and IBM.

Course director Dr Enda Howley said the higher diploma is an opportunity for graduates from fields such as engineering, science and business to invest one year in further education.

"Through placement experience with our industry partners, they will have an excellent prospect for recruitment as software developers in Ireland’s high-tech ICT sector," he said.