More ICT scholarships inbound

Scholarships for the IT industry totalling a value of $250,000 will be available at the beginning of the coming academic year, it was announced last week.

The fund is supplied jointly by the ACS Foundation, IBM and Tripoint, and was announced at the ACS Foundation's Great IT Jobs Debate, attended by a consortium of ICT industry members and educational representatives.

ACS Foundation chairman John Debrincat made the announcement of the scholarships, which are intended to encourage enrolments in ICT courses.

"The scholarships will be awarded to students at those universities, who also contribute financially. Eleven universities throughout Australia are taking part in the program thus far and Sydney University has contributed five scholarships, which will be targeted at women," Debrincat said.

"The number of scholarships will continue to grow over the next few months and we realistically expect the value of them will reach $500,000 or beyond."

Debrincat today called on governments and industry to provide further financial support for these scholarships through the ACS Foundation. "In this election year, with the focus on skills and productivity, it seems an appropriate commitment for both the federal government and the opposition to make," he said.

The 11 universities supporting the new ACS Foundation scholarships so far include the following: University of Technology Sydney; University of Sydney; Charles Stuart University; Queensland University of Technology; University of Queensland; University of Canberra; Australian National University; RMIT; Curtin University; Edith Cowen University and Murdoch University.