Building Irelands Smart Graduate

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Building Irelands Smart Graduate

• Hugh Sullivan
• Education Officer,
• TCDSU

The Student perspective
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• Three Questions

• What skills do smart graduates require?
• Who should prepare smart graduates for the
  workforce?
• How can HEIs perform better in this regard?

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What skills do smart graduates require?

• Discipline Specific Skills
• Depending on chosen career or field of study
• Also need transferable skills why?
• To become smart graduates
• To create an ethos of innovation, adaptability
  and hard work

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• Benefits
• Apart from Irelands graduates having a valuable
  set of transferable skills
• Irelands graduates would become
• Innovative
• Confident
• Hard working
• Better value for money for industry

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• Results
• Smart graduates would
• Better understand their role in the workforce
• Better understand that our workforce is Irelands
  primary natural resource

Smart Graduates Smart Workforce Smart
Economy
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Who should prepare graduates for the workforce?

• Or
• Who should have responsibility for teaching these
  skills and how should they be taught?

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Who?

• Secondary Schools
• Leaving cert curricula should lay the foundations
  for the skills mentioned earlier.
• Teamwork, dealing with information etc
• HEIs
• Third level courses should use and develop these
  skills to teach professional and discipline
  specific requirements.
• Assessments should reflect this

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• Lifelong Learning
• Concepts should be embedded throughout the second
  and third level Education Systems
• Work Experience
• Before entering the workforce, students of all
  levels should spend a significant amount of time
  in places of work.

How?
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How can HEIs perform better in this regard?

• By embedding a set of 4 principles in the
  curricula
• Lifelong Learning
• Research-led teaching
• Work Experience
• Output-based Learning Outomes
• By not trying to teach things like innovation in
  extra modules

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• Lifelong Learning
• Emphasising the use of valuable skills as means
  of teaching and assessment
• Presentations
• Analyses
• Group work
• Encourages graduates to see these skills as part
  of their education

• Research-Led Teaching
• Teaching from the leading edge of the field
• Transferring enthusiasm and inquiry on to
  undergraduate students

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• Work Experience
• Students with experience can contextualise what
  they are studying.
• This makes masters level courses more valuable.
• Graduates dont go through a baptism of fire
  when they enter the workforce.

• Output-Based Learning Outcomes
• Curricula are designed with a view to building a
  smart graduate as opposed to teaching X,Y and Z
• Students can track their own progress and set
  better goals for their careers

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In Summary

• What skills do smart graduates require?
• Transferable, applicable workplace skills
• Who should prepare smart graduates for the
  workforce?
• The whole education system
• Through lifelong learning application of skills
• How can HEIs perform better in this regard?
• By embedding principles that encourage the use
  and development of these skills in their
  curricula

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• Thank you