Project Team

• Professor Helen Whelton-Head of College of Medicine and Health, UCC-Lead of iEd Hub Project
• Professor Mark Tangney-Head of iEd Hub, UCC
• Professor Ger Kelly-Vice Head of iEd Hub, MTU

Pictured: iEd Hub Team Meeting

Provide a short description of the project

The iEd Hub is an agile educational platform producing a new generation of graduates for Biopharma and Medtech industry. The consortium features the Cork region’s universities, enterprise stakeholders and leading companies in the sector. Together, the partners co-design and deliver a suite of new teaching programmes, producing graduates for both young indigenous and mature multinational companies. iEd education is holistic in nature, featuring both technical and non-technical skillsets, with students spreading their time between industry sites and academic campuses, while the skills provided are fit for purpose for industry into the future.

Highlight interesting collaborations / partnerships

The consortium features the Cork region’s universities (UCC and MTU), enterprise stakeholders and leading companies in the sector, both young indigenous and mature multinational companies.

The iEd Digital Academy is a partnership with the UCC ASSERT Centre for simulation training, which uses state-of the-art teaching technology for education in both technical and non-technical skills appropriate for this industry sector.

Provide a brief summary of the project’s key enterprise engagements

Pictured: STEM South West Industry Event

The iEd hub has been working closely MedTech & (Bio)Pharmaceutical enterprise partners since 2020 and the quality of engagement has been extremely positive.

Several industry partners serve on the iEd Hub Executive Steering Group. We have recruited additional partners and will continue to do so in 2023 to coincide with the launch of new courses. Frequent consultations with the ESG in both large and small group settings have helped to gain feedback and insights into the current needs from a managerial level, which aided forming a number of proposed programmes for development targeting the sector.

iEd Hub Industry Liaison Officers operate specific workshops and focus groups which enable our partners to freely contribute their insights for programme co-design with the overall goal to identify alternative strategies and solutions that are not instantly apparent. These workshops enable us to also gain insights into demographics, upskilling/reskilling requirements, and technical and transversal skill requirements per programme being proposed. Communication around co-design and development cis continuous with multiple personnel within each partner company.

Upon implementation of programmes, partners are invited to provide content delivery, student workshops, guest lectures, coaching and mentoring students and work placement. This provides the partners the opportunity to continue to support and add value to the programmes beyond the co-design phase. We also collaborate closely with members of our iEd Hub Advisory Liaison Group such as the Regional Skills Forum and IBEC, whose working groups, reports and innovations provide invaluable insights around skills needs and current gaps within industry that require focus and attention.

Project Showcase

Social media accounts:

• Website: www.iedhub.ie
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ied-hub/
• Instagram:@ied_hub
• X: https://x.com/iEdHub

Events:

March 2021: Official Launch

An official (online) launch took place on March 4 2021, in association with the UCC/MTU central communications offices. The launch featured Minister Michael McGrath, UCC and MTU presidents and senior staff from all industry partners and Advisory Liaison Group members.

 

Launch Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUldP57vU48

 

Press: Awareness of the project has been raised through print media and radio. See: https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-40238012.html

 

iEd Hub Open Evening for prospective students (show flyer)

The iEd Hub is delighted to host an information evening at UCC on the 15^th March at the Cavanagh Pharmacy building to highlight upcoming courses and have a live Q+A with prospective students.

 

Pictured: National World Skills Showcase, Dublin  

Focus Workshops: Upon the recruitment of Industry Liaison Officers, more specific workshops and focus groups were formed with our enterprise partners to gain more insight into the proposed programmes under development based on the feedback from the partner steering group and their expert feedback. These workshops focus specifically on key programmes of interest to our enterprise partners. The target audience for the programmes are enterprise experts, team leads, specialists around the proposed programme topic area and working with them to co-design the programme modules. These focus workshops enable us to also gain insights into demographics, upskilling/reskilling requirements, and technical and transversal skill requirements per programme being proposed. They also ensure a two way flow of communication. The workshops form a design thinking approach which enable our partners to freely contribute their insights for programme co-design. “Design thinking is an interactive process in which we seek to understand our enterprise partners’ needs and create innovative programmes which we can co-develop with our partners. The overall goal is to identify alternative strategies and solutions that are not instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding of industry’s needs.” This approach allows enterprise partners and academics to co-design and develop programmes simultaneously.

Pictured: Janssen Workshop

 

 

Last updated: November 2024