Software NI and Workplus have launched an AI bootcamp giving 50 current or recent software students two weeks of intensive training in January 2027. The programme is designed to connect participants with paid software roles at Northern Ireland employers, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Delivered through the partners’ Software for All project, the bootcamp is part-funded by TechLocal and will include a dedicated recruitment campaign, candidate assessment and selection, and training shaped by employers’ needs, followed by opportunities to apply for roles with participating businesses.

Software NI is the industry body for Northern Ireland’s software sector, led by chief executive Neil Hutcheson, while Workplus, led by chief executive Richard Kirk, specialises in connecting early talent with employers. Both are based in Belfast, and their Software for All partnership already works to grow software apprenticeships across the region.

The programme particularly targets students from software-related degrees who have missed out on placement or graduate opportunities, offering an alternative route into employment. Organisers aim to help participants move into paid AI-related software roles after the bootcamp, or when final-year students complete their studies in 2027.

The structural driver is growing employer demand for AI-ready skills as AI changes how software is developed and deployed, set against the difficulty many students and graduates face in securing a first industry opportunity.

Employers across the software industry and other sectors are being encouraged to identify potential vacancies and help shape the skills the training covers, and organisers say the initiative will test a model that could be expanded to meet future AI skills and recruitment needs.

Neil Hutcheson said the bootcamp aims to equip students with “the latest AI development techniques” while honing enduring soft skills, and that such bootcamps “will become increasingly important if NI is to ride the waves of change.”

Richard Kirk said success will be measured not simply by how many people complete the bootcamp but by whether it can “give employers access to talented people they might otherwise have missed.”

For the sector, the bootcamp confirms that Northern Ireland’s software industry is moving to short, employer-shaped programmes that link emerging talent directly to SME vacancies.

Source: newsletter.co.uk / northernirelandchamber.com