A new event to help encourage primary and secondary-level students to consider a careers in IT and technology will begin today.

The first Tech Week Ireland, which is run by the Irish Computer Society and supported by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and ICS Skills, will run until Friday 2nd May and will see 42,000 people taking part.

The week is designed to give students and parents opportunities to learn about third level and career options in computing and other technology fields.

Events will be held across the country such as digital media and coding competitions as well as talks, and classes.

The final day will feature a number of competitions taking place such as the F1 in Schools National Final – which sees secondary school students to design, create and race miniature air compressed air-powered racing cars – and the Tech Entrepreneur ECO Challenge – which asks students to come up with ways to address environmental challenges using technology.

Last week, the minister for jobs, enterprise and innovation, Richard Bruton launched a three-year plan for SFI’s Smart Future’s initiative, to to increase the uptake of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects at second and third-level by 10 per cent by 2016.

The strategy includes a number of measures to help increase awareness of STEM career opportunities such as offering industry opportunities to participate in more student outreach activities and building a database of volunteers to deliver career advice to all secondary schools throughout the country.

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