Investment in information and communication technologies in the Irish education sector

Ireland’s economy has experienced phenomenal growth over the last ten years, in particular in the ICT sector. With today’s rising global competition, Ireland faces the challenge of sustaining this growth, particularly in the software sector. A core component of this challenge is to produce a steady stream of qualified graduates in the ICT area. Funded by the Irish government, Lero—the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre has begun two educational initiatives to address this issue: the establishment of the Lero Graduate School in Software Engineering (LGSSE) and the Lero Education and Outreach Programme. This paper describes both initiatives in detail and their uniqueness in the Irish context.