Wired to WORK

LET the call go out loud and clear - graduates in electronics are in demand. There has been a fall off countrywide in interest in electronics among those applying to third level, says Denis McFadden, head of the school of engineering at Letterkenny RTC. He says "the general feeling is that we have a huge shortage in terms of electronic technicians

This shortage, he points out, also applies to technicians who work in the mechanical and production engineering sectors.

"This is not a Letterkenny problem. It is across the board," he says. The number of students applying to the college to do the two-year national certificate and the three. year national diploma course in electronics has been low in the last few years. The fact that "the whole electronic sector has taken off in recent years," has largely been ignored by students who are looking for courses and careers.

This is partly because other areas have been so successful in attracting interest, says McFadden. And also, perhaps, he believes, because of negative publicity due to some closures in the last few years. But, he adds, the good news about employment far outweighs the bad.

IN GENERAL the trend is towards increasing employment in those sections, says McFadden. "Graduates have no bother at all. getting jobs. There are lots of jobs in electronics. Secondary school students need to be made more aware of this.

"Because the jobs market is so buoyant a lot of graduates go straight to work and then do the degree part-time."

He makes the point that although it is relatively easy to get into electronics courses around the country this does not mean that it is easy to qualify. The course at Letterkenny RTC covers a range of topics including electronic principles, tele-communications, electronic manufacturing processes, computer-hardware and software and computer-aided design. There is an emphases in practical work within the course - this includes the design and manufacture of electronic circuits, fault finding, programming and the use of software packages for design and analysis.

Sonia Pyper, a third year electronics student, is the only woman in her class of 16. She says "it doesn't make a difference", but for whatever reason, "not many girls go into electronics, they don't think it's for them, that it's a man's job". Pyper says she finds the project work on the course "very interesting". She explains that students have the whole year to do it. She did physics in secondary school and this gave her an interest in the area. Electronics was her first choice, although "we didn't know all that much about it".

Gary Harkin, a third-year student of electronics at Letterkenny RTC, is from Convoy, just outside Letterkenny. "The plan is to go and get work next year and maybe get a degree after that.

"When I left secondary school I just applied, I wanted to do something practical. I wrote it down as my first choice but I didn't know anything about it. Once I started there I couldn't have been happier. I was wild lucky. I could not have applied for a better course. After all the study, he wants to work for a while "It's a difficult course, if it was easy it couldn't be much good," he says philosophically.

The best part of the course for Gary Harkin is the practical side of it - doing the project. He mentions his project work in second year in particular, when students had to build their own printed circuit boards.

Both students enjoy electronics. McFadden says students don't realise how exciting it is. "You can find .something that will suit you," he says, listing jobs in software electronic hardware, in testing, in CAD, or in sales and marketing or production. "There is a huge variety of jobs what people can get into."

MCFADDEN points to the proposed intake of electronic technicians in the coming years, in particular by three larger companies - Hewlett Packard, IBM and Intel. Between them they are expected to take on around 980 students this year. They will also take on board a further 700 in 1998 and 600 more the following year.

There are 16 students in the diploma year at Letterkenny RTC this year. But it is a source of disappointment to the college that the course has for the past few years been attracting so few girls. At the moment there are two in first year in a class of 35. There are no girls in second year and there is one girl in third year. "It's a clean discipline," argues McFadden. "Also, companies are very keen to have female electronic technicians in order to create a balance."

The college's national certificate course has been in existence since 1981 and the diploma course was introduced in 1986. There are over 1,200 full-time students in the college. Its facilities include purpose. built computer laboratories and a two-level library, of which a large proportion is designed to facilitate the requirements of the rapidly developing field of information technology.

"Our objective is to produce technicians for the electronic and manufacturing industry in general," says McFadden.

"If you are interested in science arid maths then electronic engineering is a very exciting area, and it changes so quickly. There's always something new," says McFadden enthusiastically.