Students celebrate Trinity Employability Awards 2019 success
Posted on: 27 March 2019
Over 130 students recently celebrated their success in the Trinity Employability Award programme at ceremonies marking their participation.
Since its introduction in 2016, the Trinity Employability Award has given students learning experiences that contribute to their development of the Trinity Graduate Attributes – to act responsibly, to think independently, to communicate effectively and to develop continuously. All of which improves their overall career readiness.
It combines industry-led training in specific transferable skills with university-led workshops to help students prepare for the ever-changing challenges of the 21st century workplace. Students are supported to reflect on and articulate their learning from their participation in the Award and are given the opportunity to compete for prizes.
To date more than 250 students have participated in the programme, which celebrates all levels of participation and achievement.
Following on from the success of the first Trinity Employability Award run in partnership with Intel Ireland since 2016/2017, the Award was developed and expanded in 2018 into other sectors to allow for the participation of a broader range of students from across all disciplines.
Trinity Employability Award in partnership with Intel
A total of 50 undergraduate students participated in the Award programme in partnership with Intel this year, which provides students with a combination of training and experience that increases their career readiness. It also allows them to gain an insight into the real world applications of their skills and knowledge in the engineering and technology sector.
Among the group, 21 first year students of Engineering participated in the ‘First Steps’ module, which involved a site visit and career panel session especially designed to give an early insight into the world of work in a technology company.
Additionally 35 third year students from the faculties of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences as well as Engineering, Mathematics and Science participated in a more in-depth programme to help students develop their skills and experience as well as succeed in the workplace. Students took part in practical workshops where they learnt about Model Based Problem Solving, LEAN, and data-driven decision-making.
All students received certificates of participation and a panel of Trinity and Intel judges selected two winners, third year students, Dawn Kelly and Eoin Caffrey, for an overall prize in this category.
Trinity Employability Award – Professional Services Pathway
A total of 74 second year, third year and fourth year students completed the new Trinity Employability Award Professional Services Pathway involving partner employers Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC. The Award provides an innovative and exciting opportunity for undergraduate students from across all disciplines to improve their career readiness by engaging with leading employers in the professional services sector.
The participating students were from a broad range of disciplines across all three of the University’s faculties. Students participated in a series of specialist employer-led and careers workshops and assessments linked to the Trinity Graduate Attributes to help them develop their skills and knowledge and improve their career readiness. Each partner employer selected their overall prize winner, which was announced at the celebratory event.
The winning students on the night for the Trinity Employability Award – Professional Services Pathway were second year Computer Science and Business, Jamison Engels (Deloitte), fourth year Economics and Political Science student, Mark Finn (EY), second year Psychology student, Deirdre Donohue, (KPMG) and fourth year Law and Political Science, Maebh Ni Ghuairim, (PwC).
Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast, congratulated all of the students who participated in the programmes:
We want to prepare students for the ever-changing challenges of the 21st century workforce. The Trinity Employability Award has set out to do this, helping our students develop Trinity Graduate Attributes through a combination of training and experience. We are especially delighted to be doing this in conjunction with Intel Ireland and our new employer partners Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC who joined us this year.
Director of Careers, Orla Bannon, added:
The Trinity Employability Award is part of our commitment to partner with industry to ensure that together we can deliver for Ireland through producing highly skilled graduates who contribute to the growth of the economy. We also ensure that the Trinity educational experience is valued by both our students and employers and we continuously develop employer-student engagement in innovative ways to allow students to improve their career readiness.