New CAO Courses for 2026 and 2027 Entry

Tech is still the sector with the deepest structural demand in Ireland: ICT employment grew 42% between 2019 and 2024 and software developers and IT engineers remain on the SOLAS shortage list, with particular demand for AI and cybersecurity skills. The flip side is that 2025 and 2026 brought a sharp correction for graduates. Almost half of Irish employers cut entry-level roles in 2026 and employment of under-30s in the most AI-exposed ICT jobs fell by roughly a fifth between 2023 and 2025. Demand is rotating towards AI and machine-learning engineering, data engineering, cloud, cybersecurity and roles that apply computing to another field, which is exactly where most of the new courses below sit.

An ageing population, a national health-workforce paper warning that Ireland will not have enough health and social care workers on current trends, and chronic therapy and psychology vacancies make this the safest bet for graduate employment. The biopharma and medtech industries add another 100,000 jobs on top of the HSE, with an identified shortfall of about 3,000 graduates. Two new vet schools, a sixth medical school, a sixth pharmacy school and a fourth speech and language therapy degree all opened in 2026 for exactly this reason. Nurses, midwives, radiographers, doctors and most allied-health roles are on the Critical Skills Occupations List.

The 300,000-homes-by-2030 plan, the National Development Plan and grid, water and transport investment give engineering and construction the firmest medium-term demand of any sector. Engineers Ireland and the Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland both document multi-thousand annual shortfalls, and civil, structural, electrical and mechanical engineers, quantity surveyors and construction planners are all on the Critical Skills Occupations List. Aviation maintenance is a regional specialism around Shannon with its own licensing system (EASA) and steady demand from leasing and maintenance firms.

Offshore wind (5GW by 2030, 37GW by 2050), half a million home retrofits, grid expansion and EU reporting rules are creating real jobs, but most of them are engineering, trades, planning, science and finance roles with a green application rather than a separate green profession. Environmental scientists, planners and consenting specialists are in short supply for wind and infrastructure projects. Sustainable tourism sits in a sector that supports over 250,000 jobs and cannot fill supervisory roles. Students should treat sustainability degrees as a lens on a discipline, not a substitute for one.

Business, administration and law is the largest graduate field in Ireland (about one in four graduates). The Ireland for Finance strategy launched in August 2026 targets further growth in international financial services, international banks are hiring, and the Law Society reported its biggest trainee intake in 17 years. The catch is that junior bookkeeping, audit testing, KYC and paralegal work is exactly what AI tools automate first, so growth is in regulation, risk, compliance, data and the business-plus-technology hybrids several of these new courses offer. Hospitality and luxury management are chronically short of supervisors and managers but pay less.

Budget 2026 brought a 40% VFX relief and an enhanced digital-games tax credit, Screen Ireland described production activity in the first half of 2026 as exceptionally strong, and games riggers were added to the Critical Skills Occupations List in May 2026. The live-events industry has struggled to recruit technical crew since 2022. Against that, the whole audiovisual sector is around 16,000 full-time-equivalent jobs, work is project-based, and studios say graduates often lack job-ready software skills. Generative AI is already reducing junior illustration, editing and motion-design work.

Education graduates had the highest employment rate of any field nine months after graduating (91.6%, HEA Class of 2024). Schools reported almost 1,000 long-term vacancies in primary and special education in 2026 and acute post-primary gaps in Maths, Irish, Home Economics, Construction Studies, the sciences and Art, which is why MIC, DkIT and DCU have all launched new teaching pairings in those subjects. One caution: primary enrolments are falling fast, so primary demand softens from about 2028 while post-primary stays under-supplied until the mid-2030s. Social care, early years and psychology all have strong demand but weaker pay and tight progression routes.

Analytical, process and medical scientists and laboratory technicians are on the SOLAS shortage list, and the biopharma industry expects to recruit about 5,600 people a year to 2027. Agri-food employs around 169,000 people, half of agri employers say roles are hard to fill, and agronomists were added to the Critical Skills Occupations List in May 2026. Forestry and horticulture are small fields with policy tailwinds from the Climate Action Plan and a shortage of qualified foresters. Veterinary medicine is the standout high-demand, high-barrier route, with a large-animal vet shortage severe enough that the State opened two new vet schools in 2026. Almost one in five natural-science graduates goes straight into further study.