Speedier implementation of the Government's Technology Education Investment Fund, increased funding for postgraduate research, and increased research links between industry and colleges will be needed in order to avert the predicted skills shortfall in the electronics industry, a skills forum in Dublin heard yesterday.

The IBEC/Council of Heads of Irish Universities Joint Council heard that the demand for technicians and engineers was emerging as a constraining factor in the growth of the IT industry. Employment in the electronics sector is set to grow by 20,000 in the next five years, but the council said there was "no clear evidence that the personnel will exist to take these jobs". The forum's chairman, Dr Paddy Galvin, called for more aggressive funding of additional third-level places and programmes, and the promotion of industrial opportunities for school leavers.