Rahi and iMasons Announce the Promotion of Data Center Scholarships at IT Sligo

GLOBAL DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE LEADERS ANNOUNCE THE PROMOTION OF DATA CENTER SCHOLARSHIPS AT IT SLIGO

25.03.2020: Rahi, an IT solutions company that works with some of the world’s leading tech giants, with their European office headquartered in Limerick City (Ireland), has partnered with the Infrastructure Masons, a global, non-profit, professional association for people working in Digital Infrastructure, to help attract talent into the industry by offering scholarships to students studying Data Centres Facilities Engineering at IT Sligo.

IT Sligo’s Bachelor of Engineering (BEng) in Data Centres Facilities Engineering programme was developed in partnership with industry leaders including Google, Facebook and Microsoft in order to meet the growing need for upskilling of service personnel in the industry. Scholarships are available from iMasons for students enrolling on this course.

The Data Center industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in not just Ireland but the entire European region. Covid-19 forced technology to advance by years and the ecosystems that have been adapted are now the new normal.

All industries, from basic businesses to complex enterprises have been touched by emerging digitalization trends which organisations may not necessarily have moved to pre-COVID 19. Over the past 10 years, Dublin has emerged as a cloud computing hub and witnessed the presence of major cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and IBM. With this, Data Centers are struggling to recruit and retain sufficient qualified staff to provide and grow reliable operations.

David Mulligan, Head of Dept. in Mechatronic Engineering at IT Sligo warmly welcomed this promotion initiative, “We appreciate this initiative by Rahi to promote the IT Sligo Data Centres Facilities Engineering’ programme. The Data Centre sector is a success story for Ireland and it is important to help address the growing demand for talent. There is strong competition for emerging engineering talent across all industry sectors right now and it is important that the ‘Data Centre Industry’ is to the fore in promoting excellent career opportunities in this critical sector of the economy. ”

The iMasons are a global, non-profit association that unites industry professionals and business leaders who represent over $150 billion in digital infrastructure projects across 130 countries. “ The number of managers stating they are having difficulty finding qualified candidates for open infrastructure positions is rising steadily. iMasons have also identified that women continue to be under-represented and more effort is needed to address the workforce gender imbalance and take advantage of the larger and more diverse skilled talent pool.

iMasons have 4 strategic priorities – to enhance Education opportunities, champion Diversity & Inclusion, promote Innovation and Technical Excellence, and inspire Sustainability. The scholarship program at IT Sligo is one of our first to roll out in Ireland.” says Simon Allen, Executive Director at iMasons.

IT Sligo’s Bachelor of Engineering in Data Centres Facilities Engineering is aimed not only at employees of the major data centre corporations and their service contractors, but for individuals currently involved in the management of facilities at all data centres, or planning to provide such services in the future and scholarships are available to those with a technical background who are seeking to move industry. The course has been structured to serve the pan-European Data Centre services community. The blended program will primarily be delivered online, while the practical laboratory sessions will take place at IT Sligo, Ireland and Haute École Louvain en Hainaut (HELHa) in Mons, Belgium.

Past graduates from this programme can expect to gain employment in a facilities engineering role in the fast-growing Data Centre industry with opportunities around the world. In the development of this programme, the emphasis has been placed on aligning the course content with the knowledge and skills required by the Data Centre industry, whilst ensuring also that there is sufficient scope for graduates to progress onto higher educational levels in this particular discipline in due course.

“The traditional idea of digital transformation which people have known, the internal resistance or cost blockers traditionally associated with transforming their technological abilities, have been irrevocably changed. COVID-19 was the wake-up call that many companies needed to transform their technical abilities. It has created an extreme boom in the readiness of companies to get prepared for the new era of digitalization. We are proud to be an anchor partner for iMasons in Ireland and to champion this course”, says Marcus Doran, General Manager of Rahi EMEA.

iMasons has a goal to award at least 50% of scholarships to women and is committed to increasing diversity and inclusion in the digital infrastructure industry. Scholarships are available to anyone enrolling for the Data Centre course at It Sligo, particularly those seeking to enter this exciting and rewarding industry. Membership to iMasons is free for students, military veterans, employees of government and non-profits.