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Céad míle fáilte for 500 Brazilian students
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| Pictured at the event are left-right: H.E. Frank Sheridan, the Irish Ambassador to Brazil, Julie Sinnamon, CEO of Enterprise Ireland and Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn TD. |
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The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn TD, recently welcomed 500 Brazilian third-level students to Ireland at an event in Dublin Castle.
Under the Brazilian Government’s new Science without Borders scholarship programme, the number of Brazilian students studying in Ireland has jumped from 120 to 1200 in the last year.
Science without Borders provides scholarships to undergraduate and postgraduate students from Brazil for one year of study abroad. Scholarships are given primarily to students in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. Brazilian students can be found in every higher education institution in Ireland.
The programme was devised to help address the capacity gaps appearing in the Brazilian workforce, gaps which are beginning to impinge on the rapid economic growth Brazil has shown over more than a decade. Companies are complaining loudly that they cannot find the qualified staff needed to underpin expansion and demanding more rapid production of skilled workers from the education system and a loosening of the immigration regulations on skilled migrants. The Science without Borders initiative is regarded as a serious investment in addressing the issue.
Science without Borders is a global initiative but in Ireland’s case Enterprise Ireland was responsible for securing an agreement with the Brazilian government. Enterprise Ireland began a process of consultation with the universities and institutes of education in Ireland to assess if Ireland was in a position to participate and how many Brazilian students might be accommodated. Following this process of consultation a proposal was brought to the Brazilian government and an agreement was reached that Ireland would facilitate between 1,100 and 1,500 Brazilian students each year for the next four years.
Commenting on the success of the initiative Marina Donohue, Head of Education with Enterprise Ireland said; ‘Brazil is a priority market for Enterprise Ireland’s Education clients and EI works directly with these Institutions and also sectorally through our role in managing the Education in Ireland Brand. Ireland’s participation in Brazil’s Science without Borders programme provides a good foundation for partnership on a government-government basis and has directly resulted in over 1300 fully funded scholarship students now enrolled in Irish HEI’s. The reception marked their arrival in Ireland and extended a warm welcome to them. These students will in the short-term contribute to the colleges they are studying in but longer term can act as Ambassadors for Ireland and perhaps support EI clients conduct business in Brazil.’
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