Members of the Isle of Man’s technology community gathered yesterday to celebrate the launch of the island’s IT and Education Campus.
The University College Isle of Man (UCM) and the International Centre for Technology (ICT) have partnered to create a facility that not only provides students with key IT and computer science education, but also hands-on training with established tech companies.
Werner Alberts, director of ICT, explained many of the island’s tech companies are crying out for local talent. He said there are plenty of intelligent graduates, but businesses find it takes them six to nine months to get these people work-ready. The idea behind the ICT and UCM partnership is to build work experience into the three or four years of academic study.
“So when students leave with their degree, they can actually hit the ground running.
“We’ve seen with the universities in the UK and all over the world that there’s a symbiotic relationship between business and students in the university and that is what we need to create here on the island as well,” he added.
Campus
The campus is located at the island’s historic Nunnery building. The landmark former home of business tycoon and racehorse owner Robert Sangster was sold by the Manx government in January 2015 to ICT. It’s now been refurbished and features a lecture theatre, computer suites and seminar rooms.
ICT has plans to further develop the surrounding site, adding more teaching space and an area for a tech accelerator/incubator programme.
Kristan McDonald, managing director of Manx Technology Group (Software) Ltd, attended the event. He said the initiative being launched by UCM and ICT will be very beneficial for his company.
“We can employ the students when they aren’t in classes. We can get them into a job now so that when they leave university they’ve got industry experience and, if we employ them, we have a student who knows our business, our system, our setup and our customers,” he explained.
“For an employer and a student the benefits are great on both sides,” McDonald added.
Also at the event was Katie Nicholson, manager at Bridge, which was created earlier this year to promote entrepreneurship in the Isle of Man and encourage investment into local high-growth companies.
She is currently working with a number of tech companies that are looking to relocate from across the UK to the Isle of Man.
“A number of these companies have big plans to grow in the first couple of years, and they’ll obviously need to recruit people to fill new roles. So I think this new initiative is really important for these incoming businesses,” Nicholson explained.
She went on to say Bridge is working with a number of business mentors from the local community to encourage more tech companies to set up on the island. Add to this the government’s new £50m Enterprise Development Scheme and Nicholson said the future’s looking bright for tech on the island.
Tech on IoM
Technology is becoming more and more of an important sector on the Isle of Man, according to Brian Donegan, head of operations for FinTech and digital at the Department of Economic Development.
However, he explained the island has, historically, relied upon the financial services industry.
“Up to the time of the 2008 crisis, financial services was about 39-40% of the Isle of Man’s GDP. Then post the global financial crisis, that fell back. Well in advance of the financial crisis, though, the government decided to diversify into digital business, focusing on the e-gaming or online gambling space,” he explained.
Donegan went on to say FinTech companies are now starting to make up an increasing portion of the island’s business community, adding that digital payment companies are very well placed to set up there.
“Digital payment companies need to be able to exist in an ecosystem where there is low-latency, where there is 100% broadband penetration, very good telecoms interconnectivity and very good data centres. And we have all of those things in some significant numbers in the Isle of Man,” he concluded.