Like you say there are lots of places to get training and funding but..

I was very disappointed with the state-assisted training that I received for a number of reasons:

- The training was being given to business start-ups generally not IT specific (despite being run by managers of a tech incubator) so it was so broad as to be mostly ineffective.
- To be blunt state assistance is being controlled by civil servants who might not always be experienced in starting up small tech businesses.
- Particulary in IT, even if outside expertise is brought in on these courses, invariably it is from people who are indeed very experienced in multi-national scenarios which is typically where most Irish IT professionals have cut their teeth over the last decade but often lack the small startup skills.

On the funding side of things its probably as bad. The funding for technological innovation in Ireland is mostly controlled by Enterprise Ireland who seek to fund high potential startups. Great initiative, but it does nothing for smaller tech startups who have to go through the Enterprise boards who frankly, through no fault of their own, don’t have a lot of experience in small tech startups.

The Enterpise Ireland funding is meant to foster technical innovation in Ireland but more often then not I’ve seen it happen that they much prefer a large investment in a sure thing which may have no technical innovation rather than risk smaller amounts of money on more innovative and therefore riskier investment. Personally I think that is the wrong approach in the longer term.

So who would I prefer to listen to? From people who are up to their necks dealing with their own tech startup who are giving up their weekend to help others in the same situation or civil servants and paid consultants who probably have never been in a similar situation?

Thanks Damien, and everybody else who’s contributing, for going to the trouble of organising this.

Unfortunately we (in the South) cannot match your training availability in the North. For businesses under 10 employees there are 35 County Enterprise Boards and each offers training courses for their area.

Unfortunately the internet/technology side of things is badly catered for by them and there is not yet (may change soon with the ICT audit scheme) a national scheme for addressing this need.

So initiatives like this fill a definite gap – nice one to all concerned.

keith

I was talking this over recently with some colleagues and we came to the conclusion that for people who want to work or who want to start a company, there’s a plethora of places they can get training and funding for training. Every Enterprise park in the North offers the InvestNI Start a Business course which inclides some free IT training. There’s heaps of other places. These people are catered for.

Likewise if you come from a nasty part of town and your weekend pursuits involve stealing cars then it’s trivial for you to glom free training off the state and become a film director/editor or whatever your heart desires.

The sectors which are not catered for are the disabled, the elderly and frankly people who are currently in employment and who just want a change or the ability to do something productive with their lives. All of these Web 2.0 innovations are bypassing the common man. Wouldn’t you think that 37Signals Backpack should be heavily marketed to the elderly? Campfire for retirement homes?

Also….with software being effectively free these days….and now training being free, is the common or garden IT business going the way of the dodo?

But heck yeah – count me in for some free training, both on the giving and receiving.

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