Convene

Supporting collaboration and co-creation across the talent development pipeline

In 2020, the National Training Fund made an investment of €208 million over five years in the Human Capital Initiative’s Pillar 3 Innovation and Agility programme. It did so with support for future skills focused project teams that sought deep collaboration between enterprise and the higher education sector in important economic areas such as cybersecurity, construction, and medtech.

Convene is an ambitious five-year collaborative project funded by the Human Capital Initiative where dedicated teams at Ireland’s two largest universities are exploring new ways that universities and enterprise can work together to meet priority and emerging skills needs while creating new and effective access and progression pathways to higher education for workforce upskilling. 

Convene can play an important role in helping to rebuild our society and economy differently; to fully embrace the digital age and take urgent action in response to our climate and biodiversity crises.

— Taoiseach Micheál Martin

 

New accredited programmes in priority skills areas

Through Convene, the TU Dublin Enterprise Academy and UCD Innovation Academy are supporting collaboration and co-creation with enterprise across the talent development pipeline. As brokers across the university/enterprise ecosystem, we focus on understanding and responding to the real-time needs of enterprise to co-create accredited, cross-disciplinary educational solutions. We incorporate emerging technological, educational and entrepreneurial innovations into our programmes for learners at all stages of the talent development pipeline, from undergraduates to workforce learners. 

Our work has resulted in new accredited programmes in priority skills areas including AI, sustainability and technology; academic and partnerships providing Irish enterprise with innovative, agile learning solutions; and award-winning innovations in teaching and delivery. 

Convene was awarded funding under the Human Capital Initiative’s Pillar III – Innovation and Agility – and it is fantastic to see TU Dublin supporting the project by creating a long-term structure to transform their engagement with enterprise. It’s essential to the future of universities that they not just collaborate with industry, but that enterprise partnerships are strong, inclusive and enduring and inform a culture of lifelong learning for our society.

— Vivienne Patterson, Head of Skills & Engagement, Higher Education Authority

 

 

Project Objectives

First of-their kind, discipline-neutral units within Ireland’s two largest universities, both TU Dublin Enterprise Academy and UCD Innovation Academy span enterprise, academia, and innovation. We adopt a responsive, agile approach to talent development and cross-disciplinary provision, working in partnership with enterprise.

Our aim is to transform the enterprise engagement ecosystem by taking a future-focussed approach to collaborative talent development. Programmes are designed with enterprise and for enterprise; the Academies bring enterprise into the classroom, and the classroom to enterprise.

TU Dublin Enterprise Academy and UCD Innovation Academy, through Convene, seek to:

• Demonstrate new ways that academia and enterprise can work together to meet priority and emerging skills needs
• Pilot scalable models of collaboration and co-creation with enterprise across the talent development pipeline;
• Design and deliver new programmes equipping learners with in-demand skills and future-proofing Ireland’s economy;
• Innovate new, dynamic methods of teaching and delivery so that learners benefit from more engaging ways of learning on enterprise-focused courses; and
• Share our learnings as an exemplar of university-enterprise engagement that can be adopted across the Irish higher education system.

 

Project Outputs

Convene was pivotal to the establishment of the Enterprise Academy at TU Dublin, a dedicated unit to broker cross-disciplinary partnerships between enterprise, faculties and professional services. These partnerships have resulted in the development of:

• A Postgraduate Diploma in Sports Analytics, Technology and Innovation with Technology Ireland Digital Skillnet and the SportsTech Ireland industry cluster.
• A customised programme in 3D Modelling and Design and Applied Interactive 3D Games Technologies for Intel.
• A Certificate in Applied Procurement Management for BT Sourced.
• Multi-annual Certificate in Leadership for Version 1.
• Multi-annual Certificate in Strategic Talent Development Planning in conjunction with Skillnet Ireland and the IDA.
• A Postgraduate Certificate in Medical Device Regulation with SGS.
• A suite of programmes and pathways into and through the screen industry in collaboration with Screen Ireland and TU Dublin’s School of Media including the BA in Screen Industry Practice, Certificate in Portfolio Preparation for the Screen Industry and Passport to Production.
• The project’s first major collaboration, the co-design and launch of the UCD–TU Dublin joint Professional Diploma in Transversal Skills, was launched in 2020 as a response to unemployment, particularly in the hospitality and tourism sectors, caused by the pandemic.
• Convene has awarded 20 Fellowships at TU Dublin resulting in the development of a range of offerings including; stackable Postgraduate Programmes in Brewing and Distilling and Inclusive third level Education for people with an intellectual disability.
• Incorporation of challenge-based pedagogy across TU Dublin and UCD brings together enterprise and students from different disciplines to work on industry challenges.
• Convene launched new enterprise-centred UCD undergraduate modules, lifelong learner programmes in sustainability, digital transformation and innovation and ai, and technological innovations through virtual reality and creative technologies in UCD’s Living Labs.

 

I urge Convene to continue pushing boundaries, challenging our thinking, and transforming how higher education and enterprise work together.”