The Irish Government and Irish companies want to get in on the act.

A recent report by the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs (EGFSN) and Forfas examined how best Ireland can position itself from a skills perspective to benefit from the industry.

Dr Stephen Brennan, director of marketing and strategy at the Digital Hub in Dublin says: "Digital media, as a global industry, is a fairly fast-growing one and quite a significant industry worldwide. One of the interesting things about digital media is that it's very pervasive , , it's in how you communicate and how you do basic tasks. It's even part of your lifestyle in terms of how you watch movies, look at television and listen to music.

"It is one of those basic necessities in the modern lifestyle, so as an industry it's massive. Therefore, as an opportunity for Ireland it's also massive."

At present there are between 400 and 500 digital media companies operating in Ireland, but the majority of these are small.

Brennan says the fortunes of digital media firms are changing. "We're seeing much less emphasis on surviving and much more emphasis on growing."

While the industry is relatively small in terms of employment figures, with between 3,000 and 4,000 people working in the sector, Brennan says that many of our graduates have gone abroad to work and are carving out a name for themselves at international level.

The EGFSN/Forfas report examined the skill requirements in some of the world's leading digital media clusters and highlighted the need for greater specialisation in courses provided by the institutes of technology (ITs) and universities here.

The report found that nontechnical skills, such as project management, sales, marketing, communication and interpersonal skills are increasingly important to the industry.

It also said the ramping up of skills is required to stimulate overseas investment and boost the indigenous industry.

It called for specialised courses and modules for the wireless and mobile sector, the film and television sectors and the e-learning sector, among others.

Brennan says Ireland is seeing an increasing number of foreign companies setting up here. Nearly 20pc of the enterprise cluster at the Digital Hub comprises foreign media companies. Four years ago, there were none.

"One of the things Ireland needs to do is acknowledge that we'll always be a small economy and therefore will have a smaller role to play globally, " says Brennan.

"With that in mind, companies will look at specific niches, for example, a small games industry or small e-learning industry."

The games industry is becoming increasingly recognised in Ireland, with educational institutions around the country introducing degrees in computer games development in the past few years.

University of Limerick introduced a degree in multimedia and computer game development last year, Carlow IT started offering a fouryear degree in computer games development in 2004 and Dundalk IT also offers a four-year degree. Ballyfermot Senior College and Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology offer diploma courses.

Letterkenny IT also broke new ground in 2004 when it introduced a masters in computer games development.

Career options from such courses include games programming, graphics programming, research and development in media technologies and visualisation.

However, graduates can also work in software development, software engineering and other IT positions.

Jim Friars of the Irish Computer Society says graduates of these courses can expect to find employment even if it's not in the digital media sector. "The reality is that right now there are a lot of IT-related jobs; people are coming out of college or university and those are the jobs that are out there."

The report also called for cross-faculty training, for example, where creative courses incorporate more training and technology.

Friars says Ireland's tradition of creativity will complement the creativity of digital media. He says one of the reasons Ireland is becoming so successful in the area is our technological skills and unique Irish creativity, whether in music or literature.

Brennan adds: "The creative element is where I think Ireland has a great deal of advantage, as far as our skills and the ability to develop our skills are concerned. That is where Ireland has a real opportunity."