Irish Milkround in Full Swing

If you are one of those soon to be graduates with your head so far up your assignments, then you might have failed to notice the companies around campus lately.

From September to November each year Irelands top graduate recruiters visit colleges to advertise their graduate programmes on offer. This event known as the milkround provides students with a great opportunity to meet with company representatives, gather more information on relevant traineeships and therefore make more informed career decisions.

It’s not just the guys here at Gradpool that see the value in attending recruiters’ presentations; your peers think so too. TMP Worldwide produced a report this year in which one of its findings was 88% of the students surveyed planned to visit employers at a campus fair this autumn.

Typical graduate recruiters that participate include PWC, Accenture, Kerry Group, Jameson and Aldi, all leading companies in their own right. Irelands biggest banks used to participate too but due to…. well you know the rest.

Most of the companies like those mentioned above will have fewer vacancies than previous years making landing a grad programme more competitive than ever. So do yourself a favour and take your head out of your assignments for a moment.

Gradpool

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Nice one Sarah! An 8.5 out of 10 on the Gradfart meter!

Gradpool.ie for graduate jobs!

Enterprise Evolution Programme is Launched

In a nutshell, this programme offers 80 currently out of work graduates from science, technology, engineering and business backgrounds the opportunity to research and develop their own export led business ideas with the help of industry experts and leading academics.

Here is a video outlining the aims of the project and below is the full press release and programme contact details….

Creating Champions of our Smart Economy

Innovo Training & Development and the Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT)* have received €280,000 in funding to launch the pioneering Enterprise Evolution Programme (EEP); www.enterpriseevolution.ie. The funding was secured under the €20m Labour Market Activation Fund (LMAF) announced earlier this year by Tánaiste Ms Mary Coughlan to encourage and stimulate job creation. The Fund, a European Social Fund initiative, received 370 tenders and 26 were selected for funding of which Innovo is one of 4 private companies leading a winning tender.

Currently there are unprecedented numbers** of graduates and industry professionals with science, technology, engineering and business backgrounds who are unemployed. The EEP will take 80 of these currently unemployed individuals and through an intensive period of up skilling and retraining will facilitate them to create new, innovative and export led enterprises. These enterprises will become champions of our smart economy.

Speaking about the new programme, Declan Byrne, Director of Innovo Training & Development said “Many individuals who are currently unemployed are highly educated and skilled industry professionals across a range of disciplines. The EEP will provide a unique outlet to harness the ideas, creativity and expertise of these individuals to the benefit of our economy through the creation of innovative and export led enterprises while at the same time up-skilling and retraining participants in a range of smart economy area.”

Commencing in September 2010, the Enterprise Evolution Progamme will, over 2 rotations up-skill and lead participants to a diploma in ‘Enterprise Innovation’. The programme will take participants out of their educational specialism’s and broaden their skills base, in line with the objectives of national policy, particularly the ‘National Skills Strategy’, ‘Delivering the Smart Economy’ strategy and the continual fostering of an entrepreneurial culture in Ireland.

International best practice highlights that it’s the cross pollination of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and business disciplines that drives real innovation and value for existing organizations and for the creation of new enterprises. The practical application of this best practice through the EEP can assist Ireland’s economic recovery and add significant value to our balance of payments.

Speaking about the EEP Dr. Conor McCormack of MCor Technologies said “MCor Technologies are delighted to be ambassadors for the EEP. We feel that this programme will have numerous positive benefits to both participants on the course and the wider economy in general. Ireland has a highly educated and creative pool of talent that requires a medium like the EEP to develop world renowned organizations. Innovation and creativity were the key to the successful development of our business, and who knows the innovations that can be developed for Ireland Inc through a structured programme of activity like the EEP. ”

This holistic programme has both the personal and professional development of individuals who participate as its core. The essence of the programme is that participants are granted the freedom to create, explore and develop ideas and themselves in a supportive and innovation led environment. The EEP will create Smart Economy champions with extensive problem solving, creativity, team working, research and entrepreneurship skills. Graduates of the programme will also have a full appreciation of the challenges and nuances of delivering economic value through export led start-ups, R&D and intellectual property creation.

Speaking about the implementation of the EEP Pat O’Donnell of IT Tallaght said “This programme will provide a platform for skilled and experienced, but currently unemployed, graduates to broaden their knowledge of new and developing global industries. A unique feature of this course is that participants will engage in peer to peer learning facilitated by industry experts, leading academics and successful entrepreneurs to create new and innovative enterprises and solve innovation problems”

There are a number of key outcomes that this project hopes to achieve, which are as follows:
1. Participants will progress to start their own export led innovative enterprises
2. Participants can progress onto other enterprise incubation programmes such as the M50 Enterprise Platform Programme
3. Participants can access further education at level 8, 9 and 10 on the NFQ (Masters and PhD)
4. Participants will improve their employability profile and be recruited into R&D in the public and private sector
5. Participants will achieve a special purpose award in ‘Enterprise Innovation’ equal to a value of 60 credits at Level 8 on the NFQ accredited by IT Tallaght.

* (the Synergy Business Incubation Centre and the Department of Lifelong Learning are the units within ITT that are involved)

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For further course details, contact:
Orla Doyle, Training Manager, Innovo Training & Development:
Phone: 087 671 4117
Email: odoyle@innovotraining.ie
Web: www.innovotraining.ie