Lucy Hayes
Secretary General, Irish Computer Society
IT professionals across Ireland keep systems running securely behind the scenes, supporting Ireland’s complex digital transformation.
Rapidly evolving technologies pose opportunities and risks across various sectors in Ireland, from cybersecurity threats to AI ethics and widespread digital transformation. IT professionals play a crucial role in ensuring secure systems and driving Ireland’s digital evolution.
Incorporating STEM education for digital literacy
Our education system must meet the challenge of equipping the next generation with the skills they need to shape and influence how we use technology in an ever-more digital future. Part of our work as the representative body for IT professionals is to ensure that computer science, computational thinking and digital skills are embedded at every stage of Ireland’s education cycle.
Consider AI as a technology; it can’t exist or grow without IT professionals coding systems and developing tools that bring AI to users. Amid data breaches and cyber threats, public services depend on ethical, skilled cybersecurity professionals to ensure our current and future resilience. We must incorporate computational thinking, coding and STEM subjects at the earliest phases of education.
We must couple together excellent ICT
infrastructure in all schools with confident,
skilled teachers as our starting point.
Government digital strategy and promoting STEM
The Irish Computer Society supports the Government’s Digital Strategy for Schools, which brings a spotlight on digital competencies and STEM subjects in the primary and secondary stages. The emphasis on teachers’ skills to teach digital competencies is promising, and the new primary curriculum — being implemented next year — introduces and expands STEM education and reflects other departmental strategies in development, such as the new Digital Literacy Strategy and the second STEM Education Implementation Plan.
In support of the Digital Strategy for Schools, ICS, along with our partners at Maynooth University, are proud to bring the Bebras Competition to Ireland every year. In a fun and exciting way, Bebras promotes computer science and computational thinking to millions of school students worldwide.
Tech-infused education for all
We must couple together excellent ICT infrastructure in all schools with confident, skilled teachers as our starting point. Every child and young person in education must have the opportunity to learn how technology shapes our world.
