'Local jobs can sustain communities': Ludgate at the hub of Skibbereen business

LUDGATE is a digital hub located in the heart of West Cork which was officially opened in July, 2016. The Ludgate Hub caters for both individual working professionals and corporate companies.

Within the Hub, there is hot desk space, private office space, and private meeting rooms. Since they were established they have helped create 146 jobs and contributed €4 million to the local economy.

Castlehaven man Kieran Collins joined Ludgate in recent years after garnering 20 years of experience in education and leadership. He is an international STEM leader in the application of data analytics to microtechnology and performance. He has published widely and communicated internationally on the application of science to sport.

Before assuming his present duties, Kieran was a course convenor who wrote, developed, and taught undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in TU Dublin.

Ludgate is always seeking to diversify and offers a range of services in rural regeneration, enabling sustainability and education. Their remit with regards to education is to prepare students for jobs and technologies that don’t yet exist in order to solve problems that people don’t even know are problems yet.

Ludgate’s vision is to help support education so that it is relevant to the needs of 21st-century learners, educators, and organisations. This will require a shift in the way teachers teach, leaders lead, and students learn.

The aim of the programme is to graduate a greater number of students from West Cork to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) degree programs leading to job placements and rural regeneration.

Mr Collins said creating jobs is always at the forefront of all the initiatives that are developed by Ludgate.

“What we are fundamentally about is jobs, and jobs locally that can sustain communities. We are talking about local clubs, organisations, and neighbourhoods and making sure there is housing. That is fundamentally about jobs. You don’t get that if they don’t have something which brings them back or gives them the skills to come back. Traditionally, we have always had a drain of people from West Cork to Irish cities or further afield.

“The talent that leaves West Cork is unbelievable. It is about whether we can facilitate a return. West Cork is a hugely diverse place. It is about creating an environment that allows people to come here, work here and to raise a family here,” he said.

Kieran, whose enthusiasm for education shines through, is enjoying his remit as Education Innovation Manager with Ludgate.

“My role focuses on 21st-century skills. These skills are critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and a whole range of skills that are fundamental to work in the 21st century. Our education system is robust, but it has been built on a system that has been around since the 1800s and before. My role is to introduce teachers and students to activities that engage them in 21st-century skills. There are a number of elements to it.

“You have the digital transformation around the school, e.g. the digital infrastructure, which is Google for Education and Microsoft 365. The next element is hardware. Is broadband appropriate? Is wi-fi appropriate? Do they have good laptops? An awful lot of schools don’t have that basic infrastructure. We have facilitated Google for Education with the support of Google Ireland and the UK through Ronan Harris which has been supported in 16 primary schools in West Cork,” he added.

Mr Collins said Ludgate has applied a district model to ensure the IT needs of their local primary schools and secondary schools are being met. “Our hinterland is Skibbereen and the surrounding area. We have applied a district model here which is unique in an Irish and European context. One of the first projects we engaged in was digital planning for schools. This involved putting a plan in place to fund the digital transformation of schools. We now have over 20 schools with digital plans. That allows them to plan and operate. We have supported secondary schools getting Microsoft 365.

“The other components of that are getting hardware to staff and students. We have facilitated over 200 laptops for both the teachers and students. They are refurbished laptops or new laptops which are supported by sponsors.

“We are very fortunate we have fantastic people involved with Ludgate such as Sean O’Driscoll, Kevin Buckley, Ollie Farrell, and many more.

“They have all helped in the facilitation of laptops for primary and secondary schools. It makes a difference on a purely human level. Some students may have access to one laptop which is shared across a few kids, especially if family members have lost their jobs or the household income has been reduced. It was a great help during lockdown when kids had to engage in remote learning,” he added.

Other initiatives Kieran and his colleagues in Ludgate have embarked on in recent times include Lego Education which has proved a huge success with primary school students. Students engage in a variety of development and positive skills while having fun, said Kieran.

LEGO FUN AND LEARNING

“With the support of ESB and Spearline, we have been able to purchase Lego and iPads. We go into schools and we support the teachers and the students in building robotics and digital solutions using lego. Kids see using Lego as having fun which is great but they are also learning key fundamental skills. They are learning communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.

“We are bringing schools resources and activities that they don’t have access to. It makes such a difference to the students.

“We are facilitating new skills such as engineering, organisation, teamwork, and maths. Pupils benefit hugely from this concept. They are real skills. They have to code it to tell the robot what to do. You are reaching a whole broad range of activities,” he added.

The Education Innovation Manager said he wants to ensure more students “gravitate” towards STEM degrees going forward. STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach.

Kieran is a big advocate of STEM education. “I would like to gravitate more people towards STEM degrees. It is that cross-pollination of ideas. One of the biggest challenges companies and Ireland INC is finding is that they don’t have enough STEM graduates and they don’t have enough crossovers.

“We need so many different people with so many different experiences. We focus on STEM because the vast majority of innovation comes from STEM domains. The same skills which are important in STEM are important right across the education system. It is important to help people develop their skill sets. Ultimately that is good for Ireland.

“We look at education in terms of primary school, secondary school, and third level. Education is not that. Education is much wider than that. There is a connective curriculum around all that and it lasts from cradle to grave. We are constantly learning and evolving. Facilitating people, supporting people, and getting people engaged in new skills is important for a community,” he said.

Kieran is now planning to focus a lot more time on adult education, which he is eagerly looking forward to.

“My energy is focused now on adult education. It is not just about the 18-24-year-olds. I am looking at the skill set in companies and looking at how we can facilitate the upskilling of staff. We recently ran a Silver Surfer programme for people aged over 65 which involved getting them engaged in digital skills.

“During the lockdown, we had a real challenge of older people trying to engage with their friends and family members. They had to learn Zoom and WhatsApp. We are supporting that education. They can learn how to shop online, do their banking, and communicate with others. We had our first cohort in recent weeks. We ran it on a pilot basis. We hope to roll it out on a regular basis going forward.

“Ludgate, the Family Resource Centre, Age Active Ireland, and Vodafone all came together to offer solutions.”

Since the Ludgate Hub opened, more than 3,100 people have availed of the hot desks, while they boast over 55 full-time members. There are also exciting plans in the pipeline for a Ludgate 2.0 which will be a multi-use location for community, commercial and educational events as well as home to companies, start-ups, entrepreneurs, and remote workers.

Mr Collins is excited about the vast potential of Ludgate. “There is unbelievable potential. It is all because of the people of West Cork. At the moment we are in the development stages of Ludgate 2. One of our ambitions is for that to be an education-focused facility. It will facilitate people in a physical and virtual space. We will also continue our work with both primary and secondary schools.

MAKING HISTORY OF GEOGRAPHY

“Ludgate makes history of geography. There are people working here and their work has changed dramatically. Ludgate is about jobs and jobs for our community.

“I went away for education and for work but I have brought my family back to West Cork because there is a superior quality of living here. We lose out on access to services and access to other things, but we gain in other areas.

“The community of practice is important. It is all about creating an environment. People are sharing information, experiences, and knowledge. It is about the people and the pollination of ideas. There will always be a role for Ludgate. We are all about facilitating and preparing jobs for the future,” he added.

Ludgate has been assisted by a number of stakeholders and prominent business personnel keen for local youths to gain an edge in IT and education, which would in turn potentially entice more people to swap the bright lights of the various cities worldwide for the natural beauty of West Cork. Kieran said the “community spirit” in West Cork and the generosity from local business leaders have helped the Ludgate Hub thrive.

“Nobody is going to do it for us. If we don’t do it for ourselves it is not going to happen. We have the natural abilities in West Cork in terms of the talent pool and our location.

“We regularly communicate our successes and failures with the Department. Ludgate was a forerunner for the whole hub network. Now there are nearly 400 nationwide. Skibbereen can be world leaders,” he added.