This year’s BT Young Scientist Exhibition gets underway today. A record number of submissions were received from budding scientists and entrepreneurs from schools across Ireland, leading to the expansion of the exhibition due to the unprecedented levels of interest.

Such an interest in the sciences is extremely heartening to see, given the recent outcry in relation to the lack of performance by students in the sciences at Leaving Certificate level. Given that the pharmaceutical sector is one of the leading employers in Ireland, the future certainly seems bright due to the level of interest in science and engineering from Ireland’s young people!

For the Irish scientific and engineering sectors, job creation remains a challenge, however Ireland’s dream of creating a knowledge-based economy certainly remains a viable one with so many maintaining an interest in pursuing technical qualifications and careers.

Hopefully our current shortfall in candidates such as skilled process development chemists, quality engineers and regulatory affairs specialists will disappear in a few short years when these students become professionals!

Stephen Burke
Science consultant, Dublin
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BT Young Scientist Exhibition 2012, Careers, Ireland, jobs, Life Sciences, pharamaceuticals, recruitment