NORTHERN Ireland’s innovative Software Testers’ Academy is aiming to provide graduates with the skills required to take up new opportunities in the international information and communications technology industry.
The academy targets HND, degree or equivalent graduates from any discipline and will offer an intensive 16- week training programme, including a company placement, to 36 successful applicants. Participants will gain an industry recognised qualification and a potential offer of employment. Designed by 20 of Northern Ireland’s top ICT companies with support from the Department for Employment and Learning and Invest Northern Ireland under the Assured Skills initiative, the programme will be delivered by South Eastern Regional College (SERC) and Belfast Metropolitan College.
Following the launch of the fourth cohort of the academy, the minister for Employment and Learning, Stephen Farry said: “Graduates are learning skills that our employers need in this increasingly important sector for the future of our economy. The results of the academies to date have been excellent, with 96% of trainees from diverse academic backgrounds securing employment in software testing.
“The academy model has proved to be continually successful with academies now running across a range of sectors such as cloud technology, data analytics, and financial services.”
Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister, Arlene Foster said the academy demonstrates how government, academia and companies can work together to deliver results in a key sector. She said: “This engagement has been a critical factor in the academy’s success and has ensured that by identifying and responding to the requirements of potential investors, Northern Ireland increasingly becomes the location of choice for ICT and digital companies.” Christine Hurl, an architectural graduate, graduated from the second cohort of the Software Testers’ Academy in March 2013.
“I really enjoyed being put on placement with Relay Software Limited, to learn within a work environment. This also gave me the chance to show the employer, that we were willing to learn and work hard, even though we hadn’t come from a computer-based degree,” she said.
“This gave a graduate like me that who was struggling to get a job from their degree an opportunity to begin a new and different career path.”
Applications to the academy will close on August 29, 2014 and the programme will start during October and run until February 2015. More information can be found at: http://www.nidirect. gov.uk/softwaretesters
Meanwhile, 143 new jobs are to be created when SSE Airtricity relocates its customer service centres in Belfast.
The company employs 98 staff in two Belfast offices and is creating 143 additional jobs in support of its growing energy retail operations. The new call centre roles will be in the areas of customer service, sales and administrative support.
All existing and new staff will be based in the company’s new corporate premises at Millennium House on Belfast’s Great Victoria Street.