ACE Newsletter
Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship Newsletter - Summer 2011
Welcome to the latest edition of our Accelerating Campus Entrepreneurship (ACE) quarterly newsletter, which seeks to provide you with regular project updates. The ACE Initiative is a joint collaboration of Cork Institute of Technology (CIT),Institute of Technology Sligo (ITS), the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG), Institute of Technology Blanchardstown (ITB), and is being led by Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT).
In this edition we look at:
- The Evaluation of the SIF ACE Initiative
- The ACE Case Study Book
- The Student Enterprise Interns
- Regional Newsround
If you have any queries or suggestions please send to: ace@dkit.ie
Regards, The ACE Team
Institutional collaborations...
Evaluation of the SIF ACE Initiative
The ACE Initiative announces an extensive evaluation of its SIF II-funded project. The five ACE partner institutions launched an extensive collaborative research investigation the seeks to capture the deliverables, targets and outputs and learnign experiences of the various ACE programmes. The key education stakeholders that will contribute to the evaluation include students, academic staff, non-academic staff and senior management.
The ACE Initiative recognised that, to encourage and sustain a vibrant, successful knowledge economy, Ireland must increase the number and quality of indigenous companies and create graduates, irrespective of discipline, who are entrepreneurial thinkers and doers. The ACE Initiative therefore seeks to explore how the Higher Education Institutions in Ireland can develop and deliver a framework for embedding entrepreneurship education across all disciplines to fulfil the aim of "Creating the Entrepreneurial Graduate". This required not only embedding entrepreneurship education into existing non-business programmes but also effecting organisational change within and between the institutions to reflect entrepreneurial processes. This involves collaboration between the academic Schools and Departments, Incubation Centres and Technology Transfer Offices and linking academia with external stakeholders especially industry.
The ACE Initiative has a four-targeted approach on a cross-faculty and cross-institutional basis:
Targeted Action 1: Pedagogies, Teaching and Curriculum Development.
Targeted Action 2: Cross-Faculty Multi-disciplinary approach.
Targeted Action 3: Embedding Technology Entrepreneurship into Engineering Education, leveraging of non-curriculum activities from incubation/technology transfer offices.
Targeted Action 4: Educational Organisation and Culture Change towards the development of more Entre- and Intrapreneurial approaches
There have been a number of significant outputs from the ACE Initiative that have resulted in collaboration between departments and between institutions to co-develop and co-deliver entrepreneurship modules and fully-fledged programmes in non-business disciplines from levels 6 to 9. In addition further programmes have been developed:-
- To develop and deliver entrepreneurship education across the partner institutions e.g. Training the Trainer Programme for teaching staff
- To offer more widespread opportunities to students to take part in extra-curricular enterprise e.g. through the Student Enterprise Internship Programme
- To enhance the environment (spirit and culture) for entrepreneurship on campus e.g. through a - Leadership Development Events/Programmes for Senior Management.
The SIF ACE Evaluation report is expected to be published in the autumn, 2011.
Special Feature: ACE Case Study Book
The ACE case study book entitled: "Irish Case Studies in Entrepreneurship" was launched on Friday 8th April at the Regional Development Centre at Dundalk Institute of Technology. Paul Kerley, originally from Dundalk, CEO of Norkom Technologies Group Limited formally launched the book. A recording of the event is available for download on the ACE Website, please visit: www.aceinitiative.ie
The book launch event was attended by over 100 delegates, mostly policy makers and enterprise educators on the island but also included esteemed entrepreneurship academics from Europe. Delegates were welcomed to the launch by the President of Dundalk IT, Denis Cummins and were treated to a keynote speech by Paul Kerley on the practical realities of entrepreneurship. The book contains a range of live case studies that are suitable for use in entrepreneurship education and training. The cases should be particularly useful in Higher Education in Ireland and in the international context. These case studies can be employed to enhance the student's practical understanding of the theory of the entrepreneurship process and new venture development, as they highlight the dynamic process of entrepreneurship, whether this is in a new start-up, a community venture or a long-established business.
The cases are written by staff at the teaching interface, by recent graduates, and by experts and mentors involved with growing commercially viable ventures. The cases will be of value to all enterprise educators as part of their pedagogical toolkit for delivering enterprise education. The editor, Dr Cecilia Hegarty is Research and Programme Manager for the Regional Development Centre based at Dundalk Institute of Technology. The publisher is Oak Tree Press, a leading specialist publisher in the area of entrepreneurship in Ireland.
If you would like further information on this event please email: ace@dkit.ief you would like to order a copy of the book please contact Oak Tree Press directly by email to: orders@oaktreepress.com
Student Enterprise Internship (SEI) Programme...
The ACE Student Enterprise Internship Programme supports the employment of 1-2 student interns at the ACE partner institutions. The Student Enterprise Interns are tasked with encouraging their peers to be entrepreneurial and to think entrepreneurially. At this time of the year we say huge thanks and goodbye to our 2010/11 Interns. Graduating from our 2010/11 cohort are:
- Paddy Melia, Killian Collins or Aengus Fitzgerald from SEEN at NUIG
- Emma Brabazon from Student Enterprise at DkIT
- Aidan Stritch from BrightSpark at ITB
- Cait Keaveney and Orla Mongey at ITS
- Nicola Walsh from CIT
We welcome back our returning interns:
- John sheehy (CIT)
- Catherine Murray (DkIT)
We say a huge welcome to our new interns, to date they include:
- Isobel Rossiter (CIT)
- Niall McCabe (Cross-campus intern), Fergal Cotter (Engineering), Cassandra Kirwan (Health & Science), all at DkIT
What do the ACE SEIs think?
Graduating, existing and returning interns recently joined together in a two-day residential to capture the SEI activities throughout the academic year. This June event also formed part of the strategic planning for the SEI Programme for the new academic year ahead. A jam-packed calendar of events will be on offer to students and staff at the ACE partner institutions in 2011/12, which will begin in the Autumn. The interns put significant effort into encouraging their peers to engage in enterprise activity on campus. In the coming year, there will be a particular focus on cross-campus activities with the planning and organisation of enterprise site visits/tours, campus exchanges, events and competitions.
News round-up
SEEN Bootcamp at NUIG
SEEN - Student Enterprise Exchange Network at NUI Galway hosted a two-day enterprise Bootcamp in late Spring.The Bootcamp sought to widen and deepen the enterprise and employment opportunities for students from all disciplines.The bootcamp presented a challenging and dynamic experience with games, activities, lectures, competitions and mentoring from academic staff, industry practitioners, knowledge experts and the state agencies. Seamus Bree, Regional Director, Businesses and Enterprise Ireland commented on his experience at the bootcamp, "The energy and commitment on the NUIG Entrepreneurship Bootcamp demonstrated that Ireland's best days lie ahead of us not behind us!" One student Paul Curley added, "bootcamp was a completely fresh and life changing experience and great to see students from all disciplines".
Enterprise & Innovation Week at ITS
The SEIs at IT Sligo launched a number of exciting student-focused enterprise initiatives during Enterprise & Innovation Week in IT Sligo. Former star of Dragon's Den and self-made millionaire entrepreneur, Sarah Newman, spoke at an event on the subject of "What makes an Entrepreneur". Ms Newman encouraged students to "never stop learning", she said "The only person standing between you and success is you. Go out there and make it happen"
Sarah Newman launches a student enterprise competition called 'Bright Sparks' with IT Sligo ACE interns Cait Keaveney and Orla Mongey
Ms Newman launched an innovative student competition called 'Bright Sparks', an initiative by the two IT Sligo ACE interns Cait Keaveney and Orla Mongey in association with the Enterprise Society. The competition is the first of its kind in the Institute and encourages IT Sligo students to submit their innovative business ideas online at http://www.acebrightsparks.com
The idea which receives the most votes on line will be selected as the winner. The prizes include a netbook, smartphone and an iPod shuffle.
Regional Newsround...
Campus commercialisation
The Spring Campus Commercialisation Programme at NUI Galway involved 18 students participating from a diverse discipline background: bio medical, surgery, marine, business, physics, engineering from across 4 campuses NUI Galway, University of Limerick, GMIT and Athlone IT. Particular topics include 'Operations of the Commercial' and 'Devising your strategy' with their speakers including academics on campus, successful local industry and researchers who have moved into the commercial world.
Applied Internships
CIT launches its Summer Enterprise and Innovation Applied Internship Programme. From 26 applicants, the candidates were whittled down to just 4 students. The scholars will be based in the campus incubation centre for 6-8 weeks and will be working on developing their feasibility study. The programme is co-funded by the Business & Engineering Departments at CIT.
Podcast Programme Graduates
ACE congratulates its second batch of graduates from the ACE podcast programme for Entrepreneurship in the Social and Allied Health Care sector. The programme is jointly led by ACE, the incubation centre and the School of Health and Science at DkIT. After a successful pilot in November 2010, the programme was re-opened for a Spring 2011 recruitment. The most recent cohort involved students from various ACE partner institutions and included candidates from diverse disciplines and diverse stages in the learner lifecycle from Diploma to Postgraduate students and included some not in formal study at present.
Competition Winners
ACE congratulates finalists in the 'Think Outside the Box Competition'. IT Blanchardstown had one finalist team whilst CIT had three teams in the finals held in Belfast. Some of these students would have undertaken ACE modules/programmes throughout the year for example the New Venture Development Module - a cross-disciplinary module for Business, Accounting and Engineering students at CIT.
