Agreement Coincides with President Michael D. Higgins’ Visit to Central America

Monday, 21st October 2013: Coinciding with President Michael D. Higgins’ official visit to Central America this week, Digital Skills Academy, a leading digital technology education provider in Ireland, will today agree an academic collaboration with the Mexican University, El Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente (ITESO).

The agreement aims to lead to the Mexican University delivering a number of Digital Skills Academy’s innovative digital technology programmes, which will result in the creation of 30 new jobs with Digital Skills Academy in Ireland, including roles for lecturers, mentors, project managers and learning technologists. The agreement will be signed at an event in Mexico today attended by the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, the President of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, and Joe Costello T.D, Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade with responsibility for Trade and Development.

Closely aligned to the needs of industry, Digital Skills Academy’s programmes are designed to support participants to take advantage of the career opportunities in the high-growth Internet & digital technology sectors. Focused on developing industry-ready talent, the Academy’s unique and proven approach has been delivering employment success rates of up to 70% for graduates in Ireland. In Ireland Digital Skills Academy offers internationally recognised higher education and training awards through its partner awarding body, Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT).

Collaborating with the Mexican University (ITESO), Digital Skills Academy will develop its programmes specific to the needs of Mexico’s economy with a focus on cultivating digital entrepreneurs and start-up founders, as well as entrepreneurial professionals for the workplace.

Paul Dunne, Founder and CEO of Digital Skills Academy said “We are honoured to be signing an academic collaboration agreement with ITESO today in the presence of both Presidents. Latin America is one of the world’s fastest growing digital media markets, and Mexico has positioned itself as the country leading the production of Spanish language digital media content to service this market. Through our collaboration with ITESO, Digital Skills Academy plans to play a very significant role in developing the digital talent that the Mexican economy needs. We look forward to sharing the benefits and success of our programmes with ITESO to deliver job creation in Ireland and Mexico.”