Half of media class hired for major animation contract

A new training initiative has enabled an Irish animation company to train and hire half the graduating digital media degree class from Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design and Technology for a major animation contract.

At a lunch for the formal launch of its Accel-funded training project yesterday, the Digital Hub-based Digital Media Forum (DMF) said the programme had made a significant difference to digital animation company Kavaleer, which needed animators to fulfil a major contract with Irish e-learning company Riverdeep to supply education materials in the US.

"We quickly needed to skill up a large number of people into a specific area," said Andrew Kavanagh, chief executive, Kavaleer. The programme allowed Kavaleer to run training alongside production to help meet ongoing project deadlines, he said.

Speaking about the digital media industry at the first "Liberties Lunch" networking forum for the DMF, Minister of State with responsibility for e-Government Tom Kitt said: "The Government is determined to position Ireland at the forefront of this sector."

Digital content and related industries "look set to be the next phase" of economic growth in the ICT sector, he added.

"Digital content is something we can sell not just in Ireland but all around the world," said Neil Leyden, chairman of the DMF.

To create a testbed for new technologies and content, a pilot project called Moby TV - television for broadcast to mobile handsets - is about to be launched in the Digital Hub area, he said.

Accel, an in-company training initiative of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, funded by the European Social Fund and the National Training Fund, has up to €16 million available for training projects through 2008.