RGU helping to address IT skills shortage with funded MSC places

  • Infrastructure
  • 27.08.2018 06:54 am

Robert Gordon University (RGU) is helping to tackle a widespread skills shortage in the IT industry with the introduction of fully funded places on its suite of MSc computing courses. 

In 2016, ScotlandIS (the organisation representing the IT sector in Scotland) estimated that the country would need at least 11,000 extra Information and Communications Technology (ICT) workers each year for the next five years – while there are only 2,000 ICT graduates per year from Scottish universities.

In addition to funded places on the specialist courses MSc Cyber Security and MSc Computer Science, there are also free places available on a range of IT courses, which are suitable for graduates of non-computing disciplines. These courses include the MSc IT, MSc IT for the Oil and Gas Industry, MSc IT with Cyber Security, MSc IT with Network Management and MSc IT with Business Intelligence.

RGU has 25 fully-funded places, which start in September, for qualifying Scottish or EU students. Places on the courses will be allocated on a first-come first-served basis to suitable candidates.

In addition, students may also access a SAAS living-cost loan of up to £4,500.

John McCall, Head of the School of Computing Science and Digital Media, commented: “It is widely acknowledged that there is a huge shortage of people who are highly trained in IT and who have the skills and knowledge to address a lot of the challenges that business, government and commerce are facing nowadays in relation to big data, cloud computing and web systems.

“The skills shortage is detrimental to the growth of digital economies, and recent research confirms that many firms are struggling to recruit workers they need. 

“These courses aim to address this by producing graduates with the necessary advanced skills required to solve challenges faced by industry and commerce both today and in the future.”

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