The aim of the learning community is to engage with industry to discuss and understand how they currently mentor work placement students. Active discussion on lessons learned in the area of industry mentorship. Active surveying of industry partners is a focus, asking about their company sizes, current mentorship programs, whether accredited/non-accredited, length of mentorship training programs etc. Some companies have no mentorship training in their organizations and engineers supervise students while on placement. Thus, survey data was collated and 18 Industry Partners were brought onsite to MTU for an Industry Mentorship Day to explore the topic further. Specific mentorship questions were posed to Industry Partners & they completed a SWOT Analysis on the day. The data is now being reviewed and MTU will consider mentorship styles that could be offered to industry to ensure best outcome for student & industry alike and potentially retain students in industry once they graduate.   The learning community will establish “Mentorship Training & Guideline Documents” for industry for the purpose of maximizing student learning while on work placement whether in an SME, MNC, high tech industry, services industry etc. The documents will be tailored to the specific industry sector and size to ensure students are comprehensively mentored and that industry are competent taking on work placement students. The documents also aim to give guidance on time and effort expected from industry mentors depending on duration of student work placement and NFQ level of course undertaken.

Contact Person: Katherine O Sullivan

Email: katherine.osullivan@mtu.ie

This learning community brings active research supervisors together to support each other to successfully supervise our Masters/PhD students during this period of immense transitional change. It presently has 65 member Kerry campuses based and plans to extend membership across all MTU campuses from January 2023

Themes explored to date: 

Understanding Research Finances and navigating MTU's finance policies and procedures for research expenditure. Shared experiences of research supervision. Navigating the university regulations for postgraduate research - operationalising in the Kerry context. Shared learnings to positively influence growth in postgraduate research across all academic departments.

Contact Person: 

Dr Siobhán Mac Sweeney

Email: 

siobhan.macsweeney@mtu.ie

Themes explored to date:

a)The importance and benefits of inter-colleague within departments, across office's working together.

b) Meaning of Psychological safe spaces for learners and educators within the realities of individual context for both staff and student.

c) Is there a dichotomy between 'learning centred' and 'student centred'?

d) How student identifies their role/engagement with learning.

e) Importance of what is overall goal of HE; excellence in teaching? excellence in graduate readiness? student satisfaction? impact on society?

f) Technology and digital tools and interaction with teaching and learning enhancement.

g) Student voice of their experiences and intersection with teaching and learning practices.

h) Inclusive practices and universal design versus student centred versus learning centred

CISC is committed to the advancement of creativity and innovation in social care education and practice to enhance the learning experience for students and improve the delivery. The network invites professional educators, from any discipline, who either teach social care creatively and/or teach creativity and arts modules on social care programmes as well as social care workers or other professionals who have an interest in progressing creative and innovative knowledge in a social care context. The network currently has representation from Dundalk IT, Athlone IT, Sligo IT, IT Carlow, Waterford IT, TU Dublin, MTU, GMIT, Carlow College and the Open Training College. It hopes to involve more institutes of higher education as it progresses further.

For further information contact kate.palmer@mtu.ie

COIL learning Community or Virtual Exchange Learning Community in MTU is as a result of an online training programme that took place in May 2022 by 19 staff members from across the university. At two sessions following the training programme, the suggestion of an ongoing support group was discussed. COIL or Virtual Exchange Learning Community will build on the outcomes of the SATLE COIL project.

For further information contact gerard.ocarroll@mtu.ie

The HCT Department has a long history of providing work based learning opportunities for Students.  Work based learning is an integral part of all department programmes allowing Students to develop the practical and theoretical skills required for working in an ever changing and dynamic labour intensive industry. 

An integral part of the success of our programmes is the active engagement with our stakeholders.   The Students experience is enhanced by strategic links with all of our stakeholders.  Our graduates are employment ready and positive contributors to society through their engagement with a variety of stakeholder groups.  These strategic links are developed through a variety of activities including: work based learning, guest lectures, familiarisation trips, community engagements.   All activities undertaken are linked to learning outcomes of the respective programme to ensure they are relevant.   

Ongoing contact between workplace mentors and lecturers provides effective integration between on-the-job and college based learning experiences. Work place mentors communicate directly with lecturers on issues associated with the delivery and assessment of the programme. Lecturers engage with workplace mentors in industry on a regular basis. Lecturers maintain strong collegiality with workplace mentors and are involved in the assessment of work based learning through portfolio and reflective journals. Ongoing contact with workplace mentors provides lecturers with direct engagement with their peers in industry. Lecturers will make real time observations on industry visits.  

As outlined above as part of work based learning, MTU academic staff visit each Student during the programme. This usually includes an onsite visit. As part of the visit, the academic supervisor will get an opportunity to meet the employer. This has resulted in an improved level of industry engagement. It also allows for informal feedback from the employers.  

As mentioned before student’s complete reflective journals/portfolios on their work based learning experience. This provides academic staff with evidence of how the Student has applied skills and theoretical knowledge to their practical work based experience. On-the-job application of learning will take place with the employer and provides the student with the opportunity to apply both theoretical and practical skills and knowledge in their working environment. In addition to further developing the skills and knowledge gained off-the-job college based environment, the student develops the competence and self-confidence to consistently perform to industrial standards. The reflective journals/portfolios are used to record evidence of this achievement.  

The programmes are structured to facilitate the students to participate in a process of on-going dialogue with others. For example, training staff, their peers on the programme, and workplace mentors. The emphasis throughout the programmes is on creating the conditions to allow the students to acquire underpinning theory and knowledge and then apply that theory and knowledge to practice in the on and off-the-job environment. 

The Department has a number of work based Learning coordinators for each respective programmes who are responsible for liaising with industry and facilitating work based learning for Students. The work based learning coordinator meet regularly and provide feedback to the Department from Industry on their experience with Students in the work place, in particular in relation to any perceived skills deficiencies from an Industry perspective.   

The contact within the HCT Department for further details is  

T.J O Connor – Email: TJ.OConnor@mtu.ie 

Phone: 066 7191807