Job Opportunities For Those Who Have Learned The Irish Language

Irish Language Jobs 💼: As many of you might have expected, you can consider yourselves extremely fortunate if you, at the very least, know a bit about Gaeilge – much better if you are fluent at it. Plenty of job opportunities await you!

These past few weeks, we have written blogs about the political bind the Irish language is in. Some have used it to further their agenda, specifically those who obstruct against its usage in Ireland. But for this blog, we want to momentarily steer the ship towards the opposite direction and cover something that our readers would really want us to mention. And that, of course, is opportunities – targeted especially to those who want to further their careers through teanga Éireannach.

We can confirm that fluency in the Irish language can enable you to acquire an interesting career and even catapult you towards plenty of your desired jobs. You need not be that much fluent in it, if we are being honest. However, skillfulness in the language would net you more opportunities, obviously. Below, we introduce some of the career opportunities present in learning the language.

>>Check out the latest podcasts on FluentIrish.com – and start improving!

Irish language jobs you should be aware of

In recent years, more and more jobs have emerged that desire Irish language fluency. A little bit of research will go a long way and will mesmerise with you the countless amount of interesting careers and opportunities. This, of course, meant a significant and welcome development for both the industries involved and the language itself due to the upsides it brings to the table. How so?

First, I, along with Fluent Irish, see more and more people practising and even perfecting the language. Plenty of people using the it will encourage other people to learn the Irish language, too. At the same time, more and more people can get plenty of opportunities. Through the years, there has been a surge of jobs that require the language. As a result, we have seen an increase of Irish language courses available in universities.

Teaching as number 1: a bit of a problem

Teaching is the first occupation that comes into mind when thinking of jobs requiring ample knowledge of the Irish language. We have mentioned above that we have seen an increase on Gaelscoil quite like nothing before. So naturally, this would mean that the demand for teachers will skyrocket, and will continue to do so. However, there was still a shortage of teachers, primarily in the primary and secondary levels. There is a reason for this.

A few years back, Aine Mcmahon of The Irish Times emphasised the sudden demand; we will quote some of what she has mentioned below:

In a poll of principals and deputy principals at 120 schools, carried out by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) in April, it was found that two thirds of respondents had been in a situation where there were no applications for a vacancy in the previous six months. Just under half said their school still had unfilled teaching vacancies.

In another poll conducted by the TUI late last year of 150 principals and deputy principals, two thirds said some subjects were being taught by teachers not qualified in the area they were teaching.

Changing demographics mean an additional 2,000 second-level teachers will be needed in the next six years; in particular, the system is lacking newly qualified Irish teachers and those who can teach in Irish-medium schools.

“There’s a huge amount of positives from doing teacher training through Irish because there is 100 per cent employment,” says Dr Brendan MacMahon of the School of Education in NUI Galway where the Irish-medium post-primary initial teacher education Professional Masters of Education (Máistir Gairmiúil san Oideachas) programme is taught.

MacMahon says while supply needs to be increased, standards in Irish need to be maintained. He points to a lack of standardisation across colleges when it comes to grading degrees for those who study Irish, and says it is leading to mixed standards from undergraduates looking to do the teacher-training degree.

Irish language jobs: other jobs available

These days, teaching is not the only career you can attain by being fluent in the Irish language.

TV productions, in particular, have seen a rise and demand in Ireland, which opened a lot of different job opportunities to those who have learned the language. The IT sector has also opened its door to those immersed in Gaeilge, advertising different job openings with learning the language as a requirement. GradIreland said it the best:

Fluency in Irish enables graduates to develop interesting careers, not only in the more traditional areas such as teaching, translation and the media, but also in the arts and cultural sector, in public sector organisations, and in professions such as healthcare, ICT and marketing. There are a variety of job roles where you can use your language, whether you want to work exclusively with, or through Irish or would like to incorporate it into your work in some way.

Learn Irish through Fluent Irish

Now that we have shared with you more on the unionists who strongly oppose the Irish language and Irish language act, we want to discuss how we can help you in everything Irish-related.

ba mhaith linn plé leat freisin conas is féidir linn cabhrú leat i ngach rud a bhaineann leis an nGaeilge.

If you can understand simple Irish, you will want to improve. Fluentirish is here for you. Listen every day to get on with Irish.

Má tá tú ábalta Gaeilge shimplí a thuiscint – beidh tú ag iarraidh biseach a dhéanamh. Tá Fluentirish anseo faoi do choinne. Bí ag éisteacht gach aon lá chun a bheith ag gabháil ar aghaidh i nGaeilge.

We provide informative blogs and helpful podcasts that can help in your quest to learn the Irish language.

>>Which level?: Find out which level of spoken Irish you understand!