For those looking to boost their career, and their grey matter, Trinity College Dublin is top of the class.
The university has developed a range of innovative courses, designed to support life-long and life-wide learning. In doing so it is boosting access to, and diversity within, its historic campus.
Many courses have been developed in partnership with business, with a view to developing the skills needed for the future.
As a result learners at all levels, from undergraduates to senior professionals, are availing of exciting new courses and learning experiences.
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Many have been funded by the Higher Education Authority’s HCI Pillar 3 initiative, a government programme designed to meet priority skills needs by increasing collaboration between higher education and enterprise, with a focus on innovations in teaching and learning.
Bringing fresh thinking to heritage management
One great example of the innovative courses Trinity has developed is Exploring Heritage Collections, a continuing professional development course with a difference.
The programme provides a unique opportunity to bring together undergraduates interested in the field of heritage and archive management with professionals working in the sector, an unusual but successful approach.
It affords undergraduates an opportunity to take up a paid internship with a heritage body, while at the same time enabling those working in the sector to develop new skills in relation to digitising, preserving and presenting their collections.
The programme explores how Ireland’s rich repository of archives and collections can be used as creative resources. It was developed by Drs Jane Carroll and Julie Bates of Trinity’s School of English, with HCI Pillar 3 funding.
“We wanted a space where undergraduate students could see the routes to working with Ireland’s heritage collections and big cultural institutions and get a sense of being part of a community,” explains Jane Carroll.
“For professionals it’s an opportunity for continuing professional development, so that someone with an art history background could learn from someone with an English background, or from library sciences, coming together to share ideas. From feedback I know the professional learners find it exciting to think about new critical approaches to the material they work with.”
To date 65 people have come through the course, which was developed in partnership with 10 major institutions including the Digital Repository of Ireland, Dublin City Libraries, the Hugh Lane Gallery and the Irish Film Institute, as well as Trinity’s own library, the National Library and the National Archives.
Most recently Marsh’s Library, Dublin’s oldest public library which dates to the 18th century, gave participants access to court martial records from Cromwell’s army.
“All of the archives, libraries and galleries around Dublin have material that is so rich and interesting and weird - we should be engaging with it,” says Carroll.
The programme is delivered almost entirely online. “We were trying to take away as many barriers as possible for people, to stop them feeling they don’t have time to take a module. This way, you do have time to learn. You can listen to the lectures as a podcast while you’re washing the dishes or exercising. You’re not restricted to having to be seated in a classroom at, say, 9 o’clock every Thursday.”
Embracing technology to deliver courses and assess results
Thanks to the support of HCI Pillar 3, staff at Trinity’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences transformed the way it runs its long-standing MSc in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Technology.
In 2022 the entire course was digitised and delivered fully online. While in person site visits to pharmaceutical plants remain a core part of the programme, even these tours have a remote option, ensuring its cohort of international students, located around the world, can participate.
The new approach has transformed what was previously a heavily paper-based distance learning programme that had been in existence for 30 years. The two-year, part-time course, which starts again in January, is aimed at those already working in the industry.
“Previously students joined and were sent out huge booklets to complete for each module, so there wasn’t as much interaction with Trinity academics. So the School applied for funding to the HCI to modernise and digitalise it, totally reinventing it,” explains programme director, Dr Bernard Naughton.
“We created interactive sessions such that students could go online to complete different tasks, take some pre-recorded lectures, and participate in a digital synchronous tutorial with the academic.”
The big advantage of its new delivery is social, he says: “Students now have online discussion boards. In the tutorials they have online breakout rooms. That opportunity to network with professionals in the industry, and to meet leading academics in their field in tutorials, helps them build connections.”
The School works closely with industry to ensure the skills being delivered in the course are those most desired by the sector. “That adds a practical balance to the academic side of things, giving us an opportunity to demonstrate the importance of the academic material in a real-life context,” he says.
The innovation doesn’t end there. The programme is now piloting a new online proctoring system with innovative Irish company TestReach, which allows students complete their exams remotely, “without compromising the academic integrity of the programme,” he explains. “It’s the same standards as an exam hall but you can do it from home.”
Every day’s a school day
As managing director of Drury, one of Ireland’s top public relations agencies, Anne-Marie Curran is a busy woman. Despite this, the UCD arts graduate who has an MA in PR, is a firm believer in life-long learning. She has undertaken a variety of courses over the years, from corporate governance to digital marketing to cyber psychology.
Most recently she completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainable Development for Business at Trinity Business School, a one-year course which finished in July.
“It was all about systems thinking and how you create a movement in society to get an outcome, as well as looking at environmental criteria. It was very rounded and exploratory. I didn’t want something that was too technical in terms of being green, such as talking about carbon credits. I wanted to learn about the sustainability conscious citizen in terms of how we can really bring about change,” she explains.
It’s the kind of nous that will help ensure her clients don’t indulge, even inadvertently, in greenwashing.
As part of the course all participants have to undertake a project. For hers Curran chose to interview 10 experienced and well known non-executive directors to find out “how they move the needle at the board table with regards to sustainability”, the findings of which are already hugely valuable to her practice.
It’s a perfect example of why she encourages all her team to undertake a “chunky” education course as part of their continuing professional development, ideally once every three years.
“It keeps you relevant,” she says. “To be able to consult, you need to be doing so from a well of up to date, relevant knowledge.”
Deepen your wellspring of knowledge with continuing education at Trinity College Dublin