Ireland’s Peerless Partnerships

The breathtaking speed of today’s technological change leaves many struggling to keep up – including the businesses that specialise in tech. Rapid advances, not least the rise of AI, have left nearly two-thirds of tech leaders (65%) with skills gaps in their departments, according to research by global recruiters Robert Half. 62% say the skills gap is having a greater impact than even a year ago.

It is a problem that underlines the need for businesses to operate in locations that offer not just ample access to talented employees, but also the ability to secure new skills and expertise swiftly as their priorities develop.

Why multinationals are choosing Ireland  

Throughout its 100-year-plus history, global technology innovator IBM has sought to solve this problem. The business has evolved repeatedly to stay at the cutting edge and is Ireland’s longest-established tech multinational. When it set up its base there in 1956, its biggest footprint was in server manufacturing. Today, teams in what is IBM’s only EU-based research lab work in areas such as cognitive IoT technologies.

Deborah Threadgold, General Manager at IBM Ireland, is clear about the chief reason for the firm’s enduring relationship with the country. “The key to our continued presence is talent and our ability to embrace change at pace,” she says.

There are more than 3,000 Ireland-based IBM employees. But, as in all tech businesses, the workforce has to flex as the company pursues new goals, such as its quantum capability, which provides access to IBM’s utility-scale quantum computing systems.

Last year, the company announced a multi-year transformational training programme across its Irish research and digital sales teams, spending or investing more than €10m over five years. Part of a “reimagined workforce” for the company, it includes a bespoke training program in conjunction with Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin.

“Our research team will be hosting over 35 PhD students, jointly supervised by IBM and the universities, who’ll be focused on areas like quantum, AI, security and the future of computing,” Threadgold explains.

“This new workforce will build leading-edge technical skills and apply them to a business context – so when they graduate they not only understand our corporate culture, but are also able to hit the ground running.”

How the government is helping Ireland’s sector-wide innovation

Tech is far from the only ‘megatrend’ in which Ireland excels at supplying people steeped in the skills needed right now.

In life sciences, for example, the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training provides cutting-edge solutions for Ireland’s booming biopharma sector. And in the fledgling but fast-growing field of sports technology, Technology University Dublin has developed a brand-new postgraduate qualification in sports analytics technology and innovation.

Alongside business and academia, the state is the third arm in these projects: the Irish government has partnerships with 57 industry bodies to ensure education remains responsive to industry innovation.

“IDA Ireland has enjoyed a strategic partnership with IBM over many decades”, according to Anne-Marie Tierney-Le Roux, VP of Enterprise Technology at IDA Ireland, which is supporting IBM’s reimagined workforce program.

Tierney-Le Roux welcomes IBM’s plans to create 800 new high value roles over the next three years – across Ireland, from Waterford to Cork to Dublin – to help build advanced software underpinned by AI technology.

“The new roles will require the employees to build advanced software based on generative artificial intelligence in high-growth areas like security, automation and hybrid cloud,” she adds.

Threadgold says IBM works closely with IDA Ireland to help it identify and deliver new skills as the company repeatedly pivots to new strategies. In fact, the IDA’s understanding of the firm borders on uncanny, she says: “I think our relationship has deepened so much over the years because of how much we work together, that it's almost like they are predicting where we're going next.”