Strategies need to be put in place if a generation of skilled Irish graduates are to be saved from emigration, according to a student representative body.
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) today opened a campaign to highlight the plight of unemployed graduates, many of whom are being forced to emigrate in order to gain employment.
At a photocall at replica famine ship The Jeannie Johnson USI president Gary Redmond called on the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Batt O'Keeffe to introduce short and long-term strategies to deal with over 68,000 unemployed graduates.
“About 200,000 people are going to emigrate from Ireland in the next five years. The morale is simply really, really low in colleges at the moment and we’re calling on the Government to try and do something about this.”
He suggested that, in the short term, the Government should introduce job shares where two graduates could be taken off the live register on a part time basis in order to gain experience.
Mr Redmond added that graduates could gain experience working in the public service while retaining their social welfare payments. “It’s of no extra cost to the State but these people are gaining valuable experience in the downturn while keeping their social welfare payments to keep them off the live register.”
He said this programme could also to be expanded to the private sector. Mr Redmond said that the Government needed to act now to stop the brain drain caused by the loss of very highly skilled graduates.
“The number one country we’re exporting people to at the moment is Australia, then New Zealand and then Canada and it’s going to be these economies that reap the benefits of these very, very highly skilled people.”
He said 1,500 postcards would be received by the Department of Enterprise in weeks to come in the next step of the campaign.
Minster for Enterprise Batt O’Keeffe today said he was examining how barriers to graduates or others taking up offers of job placements can be removed.
We are grant-aiding high-potential start-up firms with an extra €55 million in funding over the next six years and we are driving the creation of ‘smart’ jobs by investing in venture capital and innovation initiatives, he said, adding "under the Employment Subsidy Scheme, we are investing over €130 million to support more than 1,600 firms that have committed to maintain over 80,000 jobs".