The Sound of Music - Cork teen wins her chance to experience engineering in music

Alison Fogarty, a 5th year student from Scoil Mhuire Gan Smal, Blarney, Co. Cork was this year's lucky winner of the "Are you up for IT?" campaign developed by STEPS to engineering and other partners to attract more 5th and 6th year students to explore and take an interest in the world of technology.

This year's winner, Alison travelled to Dublin to shadow a sound engineer at Jack L's concert at the National Concert Hall. Alison experienced firsthand the importance of ICT to the music industry. "It was an amazing experience to get the opportunity to witness the sound engineers during a live concert. It really opened my eyes to how important engineering is at such a major music event," she said.

To participate, students were invited to log onto www.areyouupforit.ie and fill out a profile which highlighted what type of ICT career would suit them. Over 35,000 students logged on to the "Are you up for IT?" website throughout the competition. The result of which was an increase in the number of leaving certificate students applying for ICT courses through the CAO application process.

Aoife O'Mahony says, "We hope campaigns like this can reenergise the attitudes towards technology and ICT by helping students realise that everything they are using today from MP3 music to Bebo to Xbox games are all developed by engineers and computer specialists, and quite a lot of these developments are happening right here in Ireland. We are challenging people to see beyond any perceptions they may have of this industry and realise how they can make a difference in a challenging, rewarding and creative career."

For more information on this year's "are you up for IT?" campaign, log onto www.areyouupforit.ie