TU Dublin Launches Enterprise Academy for Talent Development
Dedicated unit will serve as an incubator for the co-development of skills and talent development innovations in partnership with enterprise
24th October, 2022: Today, Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) announced the launch of the Enterprise Academy, a new business unit to support Irish-based enterprise in their talent development efforts and long-term skills strategy. The Enterprise Academy team, an accomplished group of sector-facing business professionals, academics and domain experts, will offer consulting and partnership resources for enterprise and facilitate the co-development of flexible, accredited talent development solutions across TU Dublin’s five faculties: Computing, Digital & Data; Engineering & the Built Environment; Sciences and Health; Business; and Arts & Humanities.
As Ireland’s largest Technological University, TU Dublin is forging a new path in Irish higher education. Underpinned by the University’s strategic pillars of People, Planet and Partnership, enterprise engagement is embedded in the University’s culture. The Enterprise Academy is the product of two years of piloting and scaling collaboration models as part of Convene, a Human Capital Initiative project designed to transform university-enterprise engagement led by TU Dublin in partnership with UCD. Through Convene, TU Dublin’s Enterprise Academy and UCD’s Innovation Academy will continue to collaborate in a shared commitment to improving higher education for all.
The Enterprise Academy responds to a series of a national calls including the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 and Ireland’s National Skills Strategy 2025 for a single-entry point for enterprise to access the skills ecosystem within higher education, a response to growth in the need for lifelong learning and mechanisms to ensure a two-way exchange of knowledge between academia and enterprise. Through Convene, initiatives to establish flexible, scalable solutions to key areas including transversal skills, digital transformation and sustainability are already underway.
The Enterprise Academy’s accredited talent development partnership model includes a wide mix of flexible delivery mechanisms – from Level 6 to Level 10 of the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ), including micro-credentials that can be stacked as pathways to larger awards. Enterprise can also take advantage of TU Dublin’s Linked and Collaborative Provider models, which support enterprises to design, accredit and run their own courses within a supportive, research-informed and quality-assured environment.
“The Enterprise Academy weaves together enterprise, academia, innovation, and research to deliver unique educational models,” said Dr. Claire Mc Bride, Convene Project Lead. “Through Convene, we have developed flexible models that can be applied and scaled to target sectors and business types, as well as developing next-practice frameworks for mentoring, transversal skills, work-based learning and micro-credentials. The Enterprise Academy is ‘open for business’ and we look forward to supporting enterprise, our academic community and our students in a spirit of openness and collaboration,” she added.
The Enterprise Academy aims to bring enterprise closer to TU Dublin and will promote engagement between ‘talent developers’ in enterprise and academia and with TU Dublin’s existing community of more than 30,000 students. Ongoing collaborations will serve as a feedback loop to refine and accelerate engagement processes, inform programme development, pioneer new learning technologies and tackle barriers to collaboration.
For more information, visit www.tudublin.ie/enterprise-academy or follow the Enterprise Academy on LinkedIn or Twitter.