Research
Research
Transform-EDU
PEEI have collaborated in a €1.4 million project funded by the Higher Education Authority of Ireland, the Transform-EDU project. This three-year project concluded in August 2022.
The overall purpose of the project was to develop supports for third level students to better prepare them to enter the workforce, thereby boosting graduate employability and productivity. Specifically, PEEI were involved with the design and delivery of a range of workshops to enable students to develop social and emotional skills for the workplace. Employers were involved at every stage in the development and delivery of the workshops. An online survey of employers on graduate employability was followed up with interviews with employers to gain insights into the socio-emotional skills most needed in their industries. Based on their feedback, final year workshops in socio-emotional skills for the workplace were tailored to support students in understanding and developing the key social and emotional skills most prized by employers in their chosen field of study.
Employability workshops were delivered in partnership with key employers, who also conducted mock competency-based interviews with final year students and provided them with feedback on their performance. This enabled students to develop and demonstrate social and emotional skills directly related to employability and receive mentoring from key employers in their field of study.
A research article summarising the results of our study and the final report pertaining to the development of the employability workshops can be accessed below. The report includes all of the workshop materials that were developed for the module which we have made freely available for use in educational contexts. If you do use these materials, please let us know.
Employer collaboration in developing graduate employability
Development of a graduate employability module - final report
Mindfulness - Maria Kenneally.
Maria Kenneally is currently completing a PhD with PEEI in the field of mindfulness. Maria is a trained mindfulness meditation teacher and continues to practise as a mindfulness coach, offering meditation and mindfulness workshops to staff and students. Maria has kindly agreed to share the following mindfulness resources and reminds us that ‘At any time in this day, or any day, we can pause and take a moment, just to check in with our breath and our body to see how we’re doing’.
These resources can be incorporated into daily mindfulness practise.
Creating Connections Through Play
Sport and physical activity have enormous power to bring people together, help them form strong bonds and build a sense of community. Parents of young children are likely to experience disruption to both their physical activity and socialisation behaviours as a consequence of increased care responsibilities. This can lead to reduced levels of physical activity and less opportunities for social interaction.
Creating Connections through Play seeks to
1: Examine the levels of social connectedness of parents of young children.
2: Investigate if involvement in a 10 week play programme builds social connectedness for parents of young children.
3: Ascertain if the provision of information on local exercise programmes leads to increased participation for parents of young children.
This Project is funded by the Sport Ireland Research Funding Scheme 2021 and conducted in collaboration with Fingal Local Sports Partnership.
Principal Investigator: Dr David Gaul
Behavioural Economics - 2022
The Irish Department of Justice commissioned a review pertaining to the potential uses of behavioural economics in the Irish justice sector. A report arising from the review, ‘An Evidence Review of Behavioural Economics in the Justice Sector’, provides valuable insight into how we can improve policy and service design for citizens and can be downloaded here. The report is authored by Dr Brian Barry, Dr Lucia Morales and Dr Aiden Carthy.