Funding shortfall hits IT market

The problems with FAS are well documented but what people don’t realise is that now, when the economy is on its knees, is when FAS are need most.

Okay, so a book could be written on the mismanagement at the state training agency but, this does not mean we still don’t need it, FAS still has a role in helping important sectors, such as IT. And we need it to fulfill its duties to those who are out of work and whom need retraining in order that the country has a skilled workforce that is needed to attract the right and retain the IT companies that our economy needs.

In the article below, which was printed in the Sunday Business Post yesterday, Cathal Grogan of Verify Recruitment talks about how the problems with FAS are affecting the IT sector. I have pasted the article in below, but here is a link to article: http://www.sbpost.ie/post/pages/p/story.aspx-qqqt=RECRUITMENT-qqqs=themarket-qqqid=47332-qqqx=1.asp

Funding shortfall hits IT market (article from The Sunday Business Post)

Sunday, February 14, 2010

With scandals at Fás still fresh in people’s minds, the effects have reverberated across the wider economy and unemployed IT contractors are the latest to feel the effects.

Unable to meet the high cost of private training courses in skills such as project management, contractors would ordinarily turn to the state training agency for assistance. However, Fás is no longer funding courses in areas like Princ€2 or IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). For job-seekers, the problem is that more employers are seeking candidates with these qualifications.

‘‘Our candidates are typically people with lots of experience and who find themselves between jobs,” said Cathal Grogan, managing director of Verify Recruitment. ‘‘They are applying for positions and employers are not only looking for experience, but also some sort of accreditation for their skills.”

Clara Gough, IT consultant with Robert Walters Recruitment Agency, said the requirement was also being applied to broader IT skills such as Microsoft certification.

‘‘Where the hiring manager feels there is a good pool of candidates in the market, they use this as a filter,” she said.

However, job-seekers looking to take some of the higher level Fás courses are faced with long waiting lists. Moreover, there are no clear guidelines as to whether IT contractors, who are often self-employed, qualify to receive funding.

‘‘It’s a grey area as to whether or not they are eligible,” said Grogan. ‘‘That has led to a lot of candidates coming to us and asking us for Princ€2 or ITIL courses, but those can cost anything from €1,200 to a couple of thousand euro.”

Jim Friars, chief executive of the Irish Computer Society, said he was disappointed at the Fás decision. He said training and certification in professional skills were ‘‘essential’’ to economic recovery. Such skills include not only project management, but also data protection.

‘‘We believe that the government needs to strike a balance and to assign a high priority to professional-level skills,” Friars said.

While some third level, government funded initiatives facilitate unemployed people taking part in degree programmes, Friars said industry driven programmes were necessary.

He said that courses like the Data Protection Practitioner’s Certificate and European Certificate of Informatics Professionals (EUCIP), certified by the ICS should receive the same government support as university courses.

Some training firms have responded by dropping prices to fill the gap left by Fás. Last month, IT service management specialist ESMI developed a Princ€2 Practitioner certification course for an offer rate of €795.These courses keep costs low by combining self-study with instructor-led tuition.

Verify is offering the same course at €695 as part of its Upskill Programme of professional development courses.

The full price would normally be more than €1,100.

A spokesperson for Clear Learning, formerly known as Calyx Training, said it had also reduced its prices by up to 30 per cent to allow out-of-work IT professionals to attend courses.

Friars welcomed these moves, but said they would not be enough.

“An IT professional, who is between jobs, still requires support to ensure that they are quickly returned to the workforce and continue to contribute their skills and expertise, so we would call on Fás to reinstate a funding programme for professional level courses as soon as possible,” he said.

Dr Bryan Fields, director of training services with Fás, said its change in strategy to focus on the long-term unemployed meant that self-employed IT contractors were not a priority group.

Around two thirds of Fás’s 600 free training courses cover IT subjects. The agency also operates a technical employment support grant (TESG) to fund people taking courses that aren’t available from Fás.

‘‘Some 11,000 people availed of this last year,” said Fields.

He also said Fás was addressing high-level skills and was in the process of developing a blended learning course in project management. Initially, this will be aimed at former Dell employees in Limerick who were made redundant last year.

The course will be free of charge to those still unemployed, but will not be exclusive to ex-Dell workers.

‘‘If we get a lot of interest, we would look at extending it,” said Fields.

He said Fás wanted to work with IT professionals who have recently been laid off.

‘‘If you have been let go from a company and haven’t had work for four or five months, we would be anxious to get you into a training course or night course,” he said.

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Getting to know you – Cathal Grogan

The Pocket Watch column in the Sunday Business Post is a great way of raising the profile of specific individuals and letting people get a flavour of their personality. It is one of the most read columns in the Sunday Business Post because it is quite a personal column and, basically, we are all inherently nosy and want to know anything we can about people.

Here is Cathal Grogan’s that appeared yesterday. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2010/02/07/story47186.asp which I have also copied in below.

Sunday Business Post – Pocket Watch

Sunday, February 07, 2010 -

Cathal Grogan has 20 years’ experience in the IT industry and is managing director of Verify Recruitment, an IT recruitment consultancy that he set up last May. The 41year-old lives in Greystones in Co Wicklow with his wife Susan and their four children.

What’s the best investment you ever made?

Taking control of my pension was definitely my best move. I’ve made more managing it myself over the past year – investing it in currency – than I made in the 15 years that my pension company was managing it.

What was the worst investment you ever made?

Not taking control of my own pension earlier, and making voluntary contributory payments into my pension since I started work 20 years ago.

Even with my top-up payment s , my employer’s payments and the tax breaks, my pension was worth less than I put in. I could have made more by just shoving it in a savings account.

Which investment options do you favour?

Currency, which is an asset class that is easy to understand and relate to. Plus, it is affected by international economics, which makes it easier to monitor and judge possible trends.

Do you own your own home or other investment property?

I own my home. Thankfully, I sold my investment property before the recession. I made a 30 per cent profit on my two bedroom apartment in Waterford.

What type of car do you have?

I drive a ‘classic’ Saab 900. I’m quite old school when it comes to buying cars.

What was the best financial advice you ever received?

When we had Grogan child number four, I almost paid €45,000 for a seven-seater people carrier.

A friend said: ‘‘Why bother, when the depreciation on new cars is so high?” He was right. It would’ve been a big waste of money, so I bought a secondhand Escape for €16,000.

What financial advice would you give to someone starting in a career?

Buy what you need, not what you think you need. Make saving a habit and closely manage your credit. If you can, work abroad.

When you started your career, if you had the financial knowledge you now have, would you have done things differently?

I would have saved more from an earlier age. People should get into the habit of saving early, even if it is just a small amount each month, because the benefits of compound interest will soon become apparent.

Do you invest in equities or equity-based funds?

I have now split my pension between equity-based funds and currency, with an option to invest some in equities.

Did you open an SSIA? If so, what did you do with the proceeds?

My wife and I both took out SSIAs. With the proceeds, we took our children inter-railing for a month last summer. We got engaged while inter-railing in 1994 and promised the kids we would take them one day. For my 40th birthday, we went from Finland to Zurich.

Are you a saver or a spender?

Definitely a saver, but I am prone to the odd splurge.

What’s your top financial priority?

To ensure my family’s financial security and manage our spending, so we don’t touch our nest egg.

How would you describe your attitude to your personal finances?

Very vigilant – and my wife hates me for it.

Have you made any changes to your personal spending habits as a result of the downturn?

Absolutely, who hasn’t? I now know the price of everything, from sugar to bread.

If you were the Minister for Finance for a day and could change one thing, what would it be?

I’d overhaul the pensions industry. I wouldn’t allow this situation to continue, where people have to pay for bad financial management. Pension companies are artificially supported by tax policy. Even though I manage my own pension, I still have to pay a ‘management fee’ to the pension company. It’s a disgrace.

If you had all the money you could wish for, what three things would you buy?

I’d buy property. At the moment it’s cheap and you get to enjoy your investment. I’d pay off my mortgage and then buy a place in Barcelona. I might throw in tickets to all Grand Slam tennis tournaments.

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IT crucial for recovery in recession

This is an interesting article on Verify Recruitment that appeared The Sunday Business Post yesterday. Verify Recruitment is a specialist recruitment agency that focuses on jobs in the IT sector that require experienced professionals.

The full article has been past in below but you can follow this link to the Sunday Business Post’s website #mce_temp_url#

IT crucial for recovery in recession
31 January 2010 By Carol Hayes

The middle of a recession may not seem like the most obvious time to launch a recruitment firm, but Cathal Grogan believes his new firm can change recruitment practices in the IT sector.

Grogan, the managing director of Verify Recruitment, decided to focus on IT because he sees it as crucial to the future growth of the economy.

‘‘It is one of the few sectors of the economy that is still expanding, and it is the engine that will drive the country out of the recession. For this to be achieved, we need to have experienced individuals with a track record of success in establishing, growing and expanding cutting-edge companies,” he said.

Grogan believes that traditional recruitment companies do not have the skills to deal with the changing requirements of employers in the IT sector.

To solve that problem, Verify has appointed a panel of executives who will advise the firm in sourcing, assessing and reviewing candidates before they are referred for a client’s vacancy.

The panel includes people from the financial services, telecommunications, retail and software sectors, according to Grogan. Verify will also specialise only in filling positions that for candidates with more than ten years’ professional experience.

‘‘The panel will review candidates from their own area of expertise, in order to verify the skills and experience of everyone we recommend and ensure they are the exact fit for our clients.

‘‘Expert skills can only be assessed by those who are experts themselves,” said Grogan.

Grogan studied biotechnology at Dublin City University, qualifying in 1990. However, he soon realised that he did not want to spend his career in a lab coat, so he looked at other sectors.

‘‘At that time, a lot of the IT consulting houses were offering graduate training schemes, whereby they offered positions to graduates from a diverse range of disciplines and gave them training on their IT technologies and methodologies. I joined EDS and went to work for them initially in Britain,” said Grogan.

He spent nine years with the company, working for them in England, Scotland, Germany and Ireland in a variety of roles, including engineering and project management.

He then moved to dotcom firm Enba, which was planning to launch Europe’s first internet bank.

‘‘Participating in the dotcom boom was an experience that couldn’t be bought,” according to Grogan. ‘‘I remember sitting in management meetings as the latest valuation was announced – €100 million, €300 million, €1 billion. It was a rollercoaster.”

However, Enba collapsed after the dotcom bubble burst.

Grogan moved on to Dublin software firm Point Information Systems, running its product management and marketing team. When Point was acquired by an American technology firm S1, Grogan’s next move was to AIB, where he worked on the bank’s phone banking business.

He remained with the bank until the middle of last year, when he set about creating Verify.

It works with people seeking jobs and companies that are hiring. The firm is focused on the Dublin area but plans to offer its services across the rest of the country next year.

‘‘We have worked with leading payment providers, e-commerce companies, global financial services organisations, large shared service centres and enterprise software vendors,” said Grogan.

‘‘Our typical client company is one that is either about to embark on a complex business initiative or is facing a particular complex technology. We also get approached when the role is confidential. There are a lot of unadvertised positions out there.”

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You can be a Prince2

Verify Recruitment are stepping into the hole left by FÁS and offering cut price IT training at a 40% discount

Thankfully the IT sector, or ICT (information communications technology) sector as it is often called, remains bouyant in Ireland. I’d hate to think how bad the recession in Ireland would be without the strength of the IT sector keeping us going.

This sector is the going to be engine of the economy that will drive Ireland out of recession; it is vital to the future success of the country’s wellbeing and deserves the upmost focus from the government. It’s not just the big boys like Google, eBay, Microsoft and PayPal, who have their EMEA Headquarters in Ireland, but it is the IT starts ups, that Ireland is so rich in, that need vital assistance. For all these companies, access to suitably qualified staff is vital if they are to succeed. We have seen this in places like India where IT skills are given a huge focus, so it’s vital to ensure the training and education needs of job seekers are in line with the needs of the most important employers, that is, the IT sector.

This brings us neatly to our friends as FÁS, the Irish government’s training agency, where do you start when talking about the FÁS farce? One day a film will be probably made about the total and utter mismanagement at FÁS, with managers living the high life and sucking up the excesses of the Celtic Tiger. But there is a much more serious side to the problems at FÁS, issues that the new bigwigs appointed to the run the agency yesterday need to address quickly, it’s just that when the economy is struggling, and IT job seekers need FÁS the most, but they are being let down the agency who should be providing free access to important courses.

Sadly this means that job seekers are having to pay for their own IT training in courses such as the renowned PRINCE2 project management methodology. The deadline for first tranche of this year’s PRINCE2 course closes next week on 29th January. The gaping hole left by FÁS has meant that private sector companies like Dublin’s Verify Recruitment (disclosure: they’re a client, and very nice one at that too) are trying to fill the gap and help candidates.

Before you think this is some cynical spin to promote a money making service, I would like to point out that Verify are offer the PRINCE2 course at cost price, yes that means at the price they get it for. They’re offering access to PRINCE2 at €695, that’s a 40% discount off the regular cost of €1,050. They can do this because they have agreed a no-frills version of the course where the free extras, like slap up lunches are removed. There is also more of home study element of the course. So by studying at home and eating a packed lunch candidates can save €355. That’s nice little saving in anyone’s books.

For more details please contact: Cathal Grogan, Verify Recruitment on http://www.verifyrecruitment.com/ but hurry now, there’s not long left to sign up.

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