It’s gold for UCC programme at Graduate Recruitment Awards

Wed, 03 May, 2017 - 14:41

Ronan Bagnall

UNIVERSITY College Cork won gold at a prestigious awards ceremony that recognises graduate recruitment.

More than 650 people attended the Gradireland Graduate Recruitment Awards at The Mansion House, Dublin, which was attended by the major stakeholders in the graduate recruitment industry, including government and business leaders, graduate employers, academics, careers professionals and key decision-makers.

Mary McNulty, Aileen Waterman, Ella Kavanagh and Daniel Blackshields from UCC scooped ‘Gold’ in the Association of Higher Education Careers Services (AHECS) Excellence – Employability Award.

They spearheaded the design and delivery of the Transition to Professional Life (TPL) modules as part of the Department of Economics’ economics undergraduate programme.

The modules are delivered as a unique three-way partnership between the Career Services, Department of Economics and eight large employers, forming a university-industry collaboration.

The Evening Echo’s editor Maurice Gubbins has for the past three years delivered a workshop to the first year students on the programme on communicating and the importance of knowing your audience.

Daniel Blackshields, one of the directors of the programme, said that Maurice’s support for this new programme has been important for the credibility of the programme with students because through his experience and guidance he helps students to see the importance of translating their academic knowledge to non-expert audiences.

Todd Eden, a leadership facilitator with coaching company Leadnow Transformation Ltd, said:“This programme is ground-breaking, unique, and I hope… a blueprint for the future. Employers want more than ‘book-smarts’, it is those individuals with emotional intelligence (EI) that get the jobs and progress through the hierarchies. With emotional intelligence, plus employability modules built into the core curriculum, when it comes to having the best start in life - I’ve seen no better degree programme in the UK.”