TU Dublin's Enterprise Academy welcomes Fellows for Winter 2024 semester
Pictured: Dr Claire Mc Bride, Head of the Enterprise Academy and Convene Project Lead; with Enterprise Academy Fellows Alex Gibson, Head of Digital Marketing and Linda Mc Weeney, Senior Lecturer in the School of Accounting, Economics and Finance.
Welcome to the new Enterprise Academy Fellows
TU Dublin's Enterprise Academy is pleased to announce two incoming Fellows for the Winter 2024 semester: Linda McWeeney (School of Accounting, Economics and Finance) and Alex Gibson (School of Marketing and Entrepreneurship). The Fellows will work on ideas that explore and develop enterprise programmes in the areas of sustainability and accountancy, and transversal skills using augmented and virtual reality (full details below).
The Enterprise Academy Fellowship programme was established under the HCI-funded Convene project to allow the time and support for TU Dublin staff with ambitions to transform university–enterprise engagement. It provides the opportunity for secondment from their regular roles, giving them the time, space and resources to work on projects aligned with TU Dublin’s strategic plan for the benefit of Irish society and the economy.
The Enterprise Academy Fellowships provide a unique opportunity to reimagine the future of university–enterprise relations. I am delighted to welcome this fourth cohort of Fellows, and I am confident that they will build on the success of our previous fellows, putting innovation at the heart of everything we do.
Dr Claire McBride, Head of Enterprise Academy/Convene Project Lead
Fellows receive support around the entire innovation lifecycle – from ideation to funding and mainstreaming – and are immersed in a ‘velcro’ ecosystem where staff and students from enterprise, academia, professional services, innovation, research and our international partners come together for the common purpose of innovation, talent and skills development.
Fellows are based in the Enterprise Academy in Grangegorman, an 'internal incubator' for which supports staff in translating between enterprise needs and academic solutions, aligning projects to the university strategic plan, navigating our complex systems, integrating our collective expertise and co-creating solutions around priority enterprise needs.
The Enterprise Academy is working to address culture change and system change within Irish higher education, aiming to increase our agility and make it easier for enterprise to engage with us. Funded by the HCI Convene project, it offers a single entry-point for enterprise to partner with TU Dublin on their talent-development initiatives and long-term skills strategy.
To date, it has awarded 16 Fellowships across a variety of projects and sectors, including tourism, food and beverage, arts and media, digital, science and engineering. As a result, new programmes and modules have emerged that respond to the identified needs of enterprise, embracing micro-credentials, digital badges and the broader professional development requirements of Ireland's workforce.
Enterprise Academy Fellows Winter 2024
Linda Mc Weeney
Linda is a Senior Lecturer in TU Dublin's School of Accounting, Economics and Finance, and a Chartered Accountant, closely bound to her profession through Chartered Accountants Ireland (ACA). With over twenty years lecturing and non-executive directorship experience, she has significant academic development experience in translating enterprise requirements into knowledge products, and is keen to reinvigorate her school's portfolio of programmes for enterprise learners. She has a passion for sustainability and has completed a Certificate in Sustainable Finance.
High-quality sustainability reporting has come to the fore with the emergence of the European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Accountants are becoming increasingly involved in this process, acting as assurers of triple bottom line innovations based on the lingua-franca of corporate sustainability. Given that circa 50,000 EU companies will have to disclose their environmental impact to help consumers and investors make sustainable choices, there is enormous pent-up demand for training on the European Union’s CSRD/ESRS sustainability regulation, supported by the appropriate academic/ enterprise/professional body partnerships.
During her fellowship Linda intends to support her School in developing a flagship Postgraduate Certificate in Sustainability Reporting and Assurance programme targeted at enterprise learners from high impact or EU Taxonomy eligible sectors (such as pharmaceuticals, food, manufacturing, construction, and tourism) with constituent micro-credentials and embedded professional certifications.
With an intended completion date of January 2025, the offering is likely to attract further innovation funding, as accountants and their employer organisations seek to build capacity and develop talent for the era of transparent and verifiable sustainability reporting and disclosure.
Alex Gibson
Alex is Head of Discipline (Digital Marketing) with TU Dublin's Faculty of Business, and has over three decades of working experience in TU Dublin. In management roles he has continued to deliver modules each year, so has a strong sense of both managerial and lecturing challenges and possibilities. His work to date in AR and VR module development, and funding applications, has encouraged him to see the massive opportunity for immersive technologies to help both students and trainees in areas such as presentation skills (where he is already research-active), negotiation and diversity and inclusion awareness. We are entering an exciting and challenging technological era with the rapid transition from a 2D internet and world of learning to a 3D model with the Metaverse and supporting immersive technologies of Augmented and Virtual Reality at the core.
These technologies are now being powered by rapid advances in AI and unleash the potential to develop, at scale, innovative solutions for learners, whether in academia or industry. From the perspective of industry, we know that transversal skill development is increasingly seen as critical for success.
Alex's fellowship project seeks to give educators and trainers the knowledge and practical tools in how to leverage immersive technologies to address key gaps in transversal skills across a wide variety of enterprise sectors. The main vehicle to do this will be the development of an accredited Level 6 CPD Cert – Transversal Skills Metaversity. Learners who complete the module will have a knowledge and technical skill-set which will allow them to subsequently develop Metaverse-led initiatives in their own organisations to enhance learners’ transversal skills.
About TU Dublin Enterprise Academy
The Enterprise Academy is a multidisciplinary business unit at Technological University Dublin taking an innovative approach to collaborative talent development for workplace learners. The Enterprise Academy works with enterprises across all sectors and business types to create flexible, scalable, accredited solutions that address sector-specific, cross-sector and transversal skill needs.
The TU Dublin Enterprise Academy is funded by the Higher Education Authority's HCI Pillar 3, a government of Ireland programme designed to meet priority skills needs, by increasing collaboration between higher education and enterprise with a focus on innovations in teaching and learning. 