WPA adds to Athlone's good job news

Six year old Athlone company WPA Mobile has added to Ericsson's good news on the local job front, with the announcement of an additional 40 jobs at its Monksland facility. However a lack of Irish graduates with the relevant skills will see most of the new jobs taken up by people hailing from outside of Ireland. WPA Mobile's Ollie Heaney told the Westmeath Independent the recruitment process has already been completed for 15 of the new high tech software development jobs. "They'll be in place by the second week in July," he said yesterday, "with the balance of them by the end of September." The addition of the new jobs will more than quadruple the current full-time workforce at the company. The company currently employs twelve people full-time, with contractors peaking at 50 depending on the contracts WPA Mobile is involved with. Separate to the Athlone jobs announcement, WPA are to employ three full-time employees at a Bournemouth office in the UK, bringing total full-time staff numbers up to 55. Mr Heaney said of the first 15 jobs, at least ten have been taken up by non-Irish workers. "Unfortunately there's a huge shortage of graduates," he said. "There's 6,200 places in the IT sector in Ireland that cannot be filled." Mr Heaney also told the Westmeath Independent of plans to open a software research centre in Athlone with other interested parties, which could lead to up to 300 jobs within the next five years. "It's early days," Mr Heaney said, "but we're definitely going to base it here." WPA Mobile designs mobile platforms for companies who want to mobilise their workforce and allow workers to talk to their office from remote locations. Among their current clients they boast Ericsson Athlone, Vodafone, Chubb, Carlsberg and Texaco. They've also recently been involved in a global first, after developing a medical device platform for a UK client that allows insulin to be remotely administered to children with diabetes. Mr Heaney said the company must push on with innovation to stay on top. "The big challenge for us is to give our customers what they'll need for tomorrow, not today." Speaking about the job announcement Mr Heaney thanked the local Bank of Ireland. "The banks will come on board with companies if they're given the right business plan," he said. He also paid tribute to Russell Brennan Keane (RBK) in Athlone for strategy help, as well as Enterprise Ireland for its support.