Google forced to hire Ukrainian and Russian grads -- for jobs in Dublin
By: Daniel O'Carroll | Published Wednesday, August 24, 2011, 2:35 PM | Updated Friday, September 9, 2011, 10:22 PM
Internet search giant Google
says that it's being forced to hire Russian and Ukrainian graduates to fill out jobs at its EMEA headquarters in Dublin because Irish grads simply lack the necessary skills to do the work.
The disappointing news comes amid ongoing expressions of dissatisfaction from Irish industry chiefs unhappy with Irish graduates' lack of skills in mathematics and technology, which they say is forcing them to either offshore these jobs abroad or else find foreigners resident in Ireland to do the work instead.
Not enough tech grads to fill jobs
As Irish Central's Cathy Hayes
reports in an article last year, Ireland's precipitous slide down an Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) ranking table assessing educational skills, from 5th to 17th place in literacy -- the most sudden drop among any of the developed nations polled -- was cause for alarm, and recent developments bear out why this was so.
Speaking at the recent Intel Open Forum on Education, Intel Ireland Chief Executive Éamonn Sinnott
said that transforming Ireland' second level (high-school) system was the only way that Ireland could feasibly improve its chances of getting enough hi-tech grads out of its colleges to satisfy the demands of big industry players like Intel and Google, for whom these skills are a must.
Students who don't take Higher level mathematics and sciences for the Leaving Certificate (broadly, the Irish equivalent of the SATs) are prevented from entering into many of the scientific and numeracy-based courses the recruiters are looking for graduates from, so addressing the skills shortfall here seems a logical place to start.
Increased use of Informations and Communications Technology (ICT) and netbooks in schools were just two of the ideas floated at the Forum to try bring about an improvement in these skills, although coming from the Intel boss, the conflict of interest here is admittedly not hard to spot!
The two stories, though, do really drive home the dangerous economic bed Ireland seems to have set for itself when it chose luring foreign direct investment (FDI) - almost invariably comprising companies from the high tech sector: Microsoft, Google, Intel, etc - as the catalyst with which to fuel its explosive economic growth in the glorious but long-dead Celtic Tiger era.
Rock-bottom corporate tax rates of just 12.5% and a 'young, skilled, educated work force' (implicitly in IT) were the twin pillars of Enterprise Ireland's many successful sales pitches to US bosses and companies, who flocked and opened operations here to our financial delight, but it now seems as if the future of these two advantages looks dicey at best, and is going to look ever less convincing given our relatively high wage-base compared to countries in the Far East like India, who often also boast a more suitably skilled pool of graduates.
As the Irish Times' Caroline Madden
reports, Ireland landed €21bn ($30.4bn) worth of FDI last year alone, the second highest net amount landed from outside the EU, but it remains to be seen how much of this windfall can be sustained if graduates lack the skills necessary to fill the jobs employers are demanding of them, and if migrant workers from Eastern Europe continue flocking home it seems as if even they, the Russians and the Ukraonians of the Google case, may not be available to fill these jobs. Fears justifiably run high that the ship may eventually simply set sail.
The fact that badly needed jobs are having to go to migrant workers at a time when our own unemployment rate stands above 14pc is a tragic one, but hardly an unsurprising one given the economy's seismic shift from agriculture-based to hi-tech in the space of not even fifty years.
Universities are also not renowned for acclimatizing to what's going on in the outside world, and it may be the case that the more vocationally focused institutes of technology will emerge as the leaders in supplying the needs of hi-tech industry (a case in point is Cork Institute of Technology (CIT), which this Fall is starting enrolment in the first cloud computing degree in the world).
Broadband not up to scratch
The all powerful search engine, currently spinning out a social network that it hopes can rival Facebook, also said that Irish internet is not up to scratch, which makes you wonder whether it's our government, which has long been slow in bringing out a decent national broadband scheme, or our graduates, that are really at fault for the skills shortage problem.
"I am very surprised [by the internet quality], you were doing very well with broadband until the financial crisis hit,"
Google CEO Eric Schmidtreportedly told workers at the firm's Dublin base recently, before
adding that Ireland needs to be taking more steps to ensure that it gets more businesses online.
If there was one thing the now deposed Fianna Fáil government didn't specialize in, it seems to have been planning for the future. Let's just hope improvements are made before more of Ireland's young generation are forced to leave Ireland because there are no jobs -- or because they're too unqualified to take the ones going.
Correction
Larry Page replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO of Google on Apr. 4 of this year, however he remains an Executive Chairman at the company. Schmidt's comments cited above were made a recent gathering in Dublin (27th Jun.). Link to a report from The Irish Times is
here.
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.printempo | Mar 10, 2013, 05:14 PM EDT
For your information, dear worried Irish readers, when Google (or any other company) hires a non-EU national, the minimum salary to be paid to the foreigner is 30 000 a year. So it already excludes the comment of "cheap labour force". Secondly, what the F are you complaining on? Non EU nationals working in Ireland pay up to 41% of taxes. However, if they lose a job, they are not eligible for any welfare, but are required to leave the country immediately. Whoever heard the BS about "The citizens of Russia will not even need a visa to enter the UK from now on."is wrong. And of course, you probably consider that going through humiliation and several weeks of paperwork as well as high fees at the UK embassy in order to take a look at the Big Ben during a one week trip to London is totally fair. (Whereas you enjoy your right to travel the world visa-free just because you are born in a certain country...) The last and not the least - the article mentions Ukrainians and Russians RESIDENT in Ireland. And that's a huge difference from "foreigners" in the legal status.
bunkerhill | Jul 07, 2011, 01:44 PM EDT
Searlit I agree with you as Ireland was the first to avow that all men are created equal and has never down through all the centuries changed their point of view. Indeed, although a tiny island, they fought constantly to remain free. My wife and I will be very disappointed if the diaspora does not stand up and help Ireland. I saw something very troubling on a European TV station this morning. I was watching because I am sick of Wills and Kate and Casey Anthony which is what we get on US news. The citizens of Russia will not even need a visa to enter the UK from now on. I find that very ominous when Schmidt was advocating bringing the same crowd to Ireland. One question I have is where are the citizens of the UK in all of this. Are they so used to being cannon fodder that they can't stand up for their own rights?
Searlit | Jul 06, 2011, 10:40 AM EDT
Ireland is in a unique position, to change the world. Which way they pivot will show whether they want to be dependant or independant. It's not the time to lose courage.
bunkerhill | Jul 06, 2011, 10:05 AM EDT
Apologies for lack of knowledge. Schmidt is gone from Google. Hopefully to the Ukraine.
bunkerhill | Jul 06, 2011, 09:57 AM EDT
Cillowen has it right. The one-worlders have been at it for some time now and are getting closer to their aim. Fleece Ireland and Iceland, along with other European countries as they did in the US. Then walk in and buy the countries up although the Icelanders took a different route. On our wonderful July 4th, Erica Hill on her CBS morning show opened with five minutes of gushing about Wills and Kate with never a mention of July 4th. I felt so sorry for our military families. The woman spent an enormous amount time during the plans for the "wedding" gushing about the Royals and I wonder why someone doesn't give her a one way ticket to England where she can live in a tiny row house and pay taxes to the royals. No Irish need apply for US citizenship now while people are pouring in from all over the world. An enormous number are illegal and only a small percentage are from Mexico. Some of them quickly set up mafias and are getting enormously rich while our pols take their pay offs and look the other way. Five billions dollars a year goes out to Israel with a population about the size of Ireland while our flooded out citizens are being told they cannot get government help. An enormous number of Americans did now know what Fourth of July was and thought we were still part of England. The plan is working beautifully. Tell Eric Schmitt to go to the Ukraine and Russia and leave Ireland alone. I am looking for an alternative to google.
cillowen | Jul 05, 2011, 09:44 PM EDT
getting the natives heading for connaught so to speak (out of country) and smear them with foreign looks, such is the means to ensure the left behind natives are kept in line with the so-called peace agreements that gerry and martin bought into. Quennie is coming again and again ..........
mamaginnty | Jul 05, 2011, 06:31 PM EDT
A load of bull, just looks like they want cheap labour, they should not be allowed to do this.
Trealach | Jul 05, 2011, 01:16 PM EDT
I see Danny O'Carroll is still wayyyyy behind the times with his information, but then I suppose he does have to make a few $$ from this tabloid. That article is the greatest load of outdated BS I have read in a long time.
bunkerhill | Jul 05, 2011, 01:03 PM EDT
I don't believe for one minute that a Russian or a Ukranian would be better than an Irish person working at a high tech job. "60 Minutes" not long ago had a show on which American High Tech companies had to explain why they needed the highly skilled workers of Ireland. It struck me odd that Ireland was singled out on this show while India, the Phillipines and the rest of the world were not questioned. This is truly "hit Ireland while it's down" tactics, and I have seen Russians recently on TV damning Ireland although I can't remember why. The Ukraine is a country in trouble. If Google want to hire Russians and Ukranians, let them remain in their respective countries instead of going to Ireland. Surely Russia and the Ukraine could use the jobs. This is another step towards the "One World" take over and I believe that is why we are hearing so much about the royals. American clown Robin Williams has been on the internet espousing a huge country of - the UK, including Ireland, the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. What the clown is putting forth is treason but nothing has been said. I believe Ireland is in grave danger. Remember the queen's visit to Lithuania a few years back. Did that strike anyone as a little strange - why Lithuania? It would be so much fun to watch Google operate in Russian and the Ikraine. Ireland should not allow them to bring these foreignors in. The highly sophisticated country of Singapore has said it would welcome Irish workers. Something is wrong with this picture. Do we really need google? Isn't there a new company passing them up?
nanny2sorli | Jul 05, 2011, 11:06 AM EDT
Shame you can't spell UKRAINIAN, especially when it's in the headline!