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IT Firm Version 1 To Create 180 New Belfast Jobs Aimed At Young People

11 Jun 2021

IT Firm Version 1 To Create 180 New Belfast Jobs Aimed At Young People

IT firm Version 1 is to create 180 new tech jobs in Belfast and is aiming to get more young people to apply for the vacancies in Northern Ireland.

A variety of positions will be on offer, including sales vacancies, software development roles and project management jobs.

Starting salaries for some of the roles are in excess of £25,000 and Version 1 is hoping to attract young people who might have lost hospitality jobs or tourism roles due to the pandemic.

The recruitment drive will see Version 1 more than double its headcount in Belfast - and 2 in 3 of the new jobs will be ‘assured skills academies’ which will be funded by the Department for the Economy (DoE) and overseen by Belfast Metropolitan College.

The DoE is providing over £820,000 for the academies, the first of which is already open for applications.

Announcing the opportunities, the director of operations at Version 1, Lorna McAdoo, said: “What we've found is, that particularly because of Covid, a lot of the organisations that we worked with want more of their services to be handled digitally. We currently have 50 vacancies online that have been a challenge to fill and that's why the assured skills academies are so important.”

“We are interested in young people from any background. They could be in hospitality right now or at university or college studying something totally different to IT. This is an opportunity for them,” added Ms McAdoo.

Belfast Met’s principal and chief executive, Louise Warde Hunter, said that industry-tailored academies were paramount because recruiters have been struggling to find applicants with the requisite skills.

“They could be young people at university or older people with work experience under their belt but they are given tailored skills development. Since March 2020, about 330 people have come through an assured skills academy with Belfast Met.”

“That will be replicated across Northern Ireland. This reflects not only the need during lockdown but also the capacity for the digital sector to provide services online,” said Ms Hunter.

Diane Dodds, the Minister for Economy also commented, saying: “Skills mobility is a huge issue for any economy. We need people to be able to transfer from one sector to the other and this will allow them to do that.”

“We have seen unemployment rise very significantly despite huge levels of support from Westminster with the furlough scheme, and from my own department, but this is an opportunity to match growth and skills,” added Ms Dodds.

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