Good progress has been made in trying to meet Ireland's information technology skills requirements, but there is still much to be done, according to the group set up to advise the Government in the area. Contributions from the private sector and an adaptable approach in education have supported the provision of more skilled technicians to meet growing industry demand. However greater efforts are required to attract more women into technical careers.

Speaking at a meeting of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs yesterday, Dr Chris Horn, chairman of the group, and chief executive officer of Iona Technologies, welcomed the advances made since the group published its preliminary report in June. Then it concluded that an additional 2,200 technical specialists would be needed in each of the next five years.

Since then, some of the report's major recommendations have been acted upon, including an undertaking from FAS to provide an additional 730 places in training courses over an 18-month period. Divided between 20 training centres, the courses will provide skilled hardware, software and multimedia technicians.

Representatives from some of Ireland's biggest employers, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Xerox and Intel, attended yesterday's meeting. They outlined how they were diversifying their recruiting procedures away from graduates only. Key target markets for employers include people with skills in other industries, ex-pats, women, foreigners and the unemployed.

According to Mr John Xerri of Xerox: "No company in Europe would respond as quickly as Ireland has to its IT skills requirements. Ireland is fast becoming the language-speaking country of Europe, and there is a need for technical programmes and courses that include a language."