IT Sligo will continue to build on the widely acknowledged success of its provision of flexible “on the job” upskilling learning courses that meet the needs of employers and employees.
That was a keynote message from Dr Brendan McCormack, Registrar of IT Sligo, in an address to a national audience of professional engineers in industry, public service and academia.
Collaboration with employers and education innovation were prominent themes of IT Sligo’s contribution to the national conference of Engineers Ireland, held in Sligo and organised jointly with the body’s North West Region.
As engineering staff from IT Sligo’s School of Engineering and Design demonstrated recent examples of innovative engineering education and research, conference participants were keen to test their interactive skills and scrutinise results.
Staff from the Institute’s Centre for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technologies (CREST) provided briefings about research and development support that CREST gives to the companies in the North West region.
Outlining the Institute’s expansion of online learning programmes over recent years, Dr McCormack said demand continues to grow for tailored programmes that deliver the most up-to-date knowledge of specialist industry disciplines made accessible through online education..
“IT Sligo is an academic institution that has a proven record in providing education how and when employers and employees need it,” he said. “The Institute’s proactive approach has been very strongly welcomed by industry in general,” he said.
In addition to its many full-time courses that equip IT Sligo students for graduate-entry roles in a wide variety of occupations, the Institute works in partnership with employers to design and deliver bespoke programmes, he explained.
Dr McCormack, who is a Chartered Engineer, said: “These programmes are delivered online to increase accessibility and facilitate a flexible learning environment that enables the student in employment to take the course whether or not they attend a live class.
“We currently have a portfolio of over 40 courses delivered to some 50 industries across the country. On these online courses, students typically do not travel to Sligo and receive all of their classes and course materials online.”
Exhibits of IT Sligo innovation at the conference included: an online training rig that allows students to conduct control system analysis and experiments remotely; interactive remote robotics programming; a demonstration of the Institute’s ground-breaking MOOC (massive open online course) on Lean Six Sigma Quality, for which 2,400 students from 45 countries registered.
