UCD Professional Academy launches LEAD Forum

On 26th September 2024, the UCD Professional Academy, Ireland’s leading destination for short-form professional development and upskilling courses, launched its new LEAD Forum (Leaders in Education & Development). The Forum brought together L&D leaders from across several industries to discuss the importance of future-proofing Ireland’s workforce and how to ensure our economy retains its competitive edge.

This Forum is the first in a series of industry events dedicated to gathering insights from industry leaders across Ireland that will ultimately inform the future plans, projects and policies of UCD Professional Academy.

L&D leaders from several industry backgrounds, including pharma, healthcare, IT and aviation shared their insights and findings into the UCD Professional Academy’s approach to upskilling workers and the country’s success in professional development.

With business needs changing more rapidly than ever, demand is growing for shorter, curated upskilling courses that are specified to the requirements of a particular organisation or industry. Rather than the traditional 36-hour upskilling course, business leaders want bespoke skills-based performance packs that target their skills gaps and enhance the capabilities of their workforce.

Over 70% of participants at the LEAD Forum sought a collaborative approach to upskilling, whereby their organisations would work with UCD Professional Academy to determine the outputs and outcomes of the course. Of particular interest were short-form courses focusing on soft skills, where a selection of modules could be chosen and stacked like building blocks to target particular skills gaps.

Looking at Ireland, participants agreed that Ireland’s participation in lifelong learning is not where it should be. To protect the future of our workforce, upskilling must be prioritised by individual businesses and the Irish Government. UCD Professional Academy also noted that investment in continuous professional development would entice more prospective learners to engage in upskilling, which in turn would work to develop the future workforce Ireland needs to remain a competitive and successful economy.

John Delves, CEO of UCD Professional Academy said: “UCD Professional Academy is committed to actively and meaningfully working with industry to develop and maintain market-leading upskilling courses. The LEAD Forum is an opportunity for us to create a space that supports the L&D community across all sectors in Ireland where we can share ideas, gain insights and work together to ensure UCD Professional Academy is serving the future of skills development to the highest degree.

We greatly value the input and contributions from Ireland’s L&D leaders today, as it will allow us to build collaborative working relationships with our corporate partners that specifically target their individual industry and business needs.  

Improvement, upskilling and innovation are essential to growth and success, and we look forward to building a vibrant community with our partners that provides them with the skills and knowledge to succeed in Ireland today through our professional development courses.”

The event also featured keynote speeches from organisational development expert and CEO of Mackin Professional Services, Fiona Donnelly, Senior L&D Specialist from An Post Alisha Clarkin, Claire Ryan, Unified Comms Team Lead at An Post, and Director of Product Development and Delivery at UCD Professional Academy Antonio Palacios.

Speaking at the event, Fiona Donnelly said:

“I was delighted to participate in this thought-provoking event hosted by UCD Professional Academy. For me, the intrinsic relationship between competitive edge and organisational learning is clear and it is vital to develop and maintain that synergy continually. While fostering a culture of learning is critical, it may not be enough in itself and the purpose and nature of learning needs to be constantly challenged and assessed. A forum such as this is crucial to discuss the contemporary challenges organisations face and to explore agile ways to facilitate learning in what is now the dawn of Industry 5.0.”

Senior L&D Specialist from An Post, Alisha Clarkin said:

“We are proud to partner with UCD Professional Academy on our recent professional development journey. The Academy’s unique approach to upskilling was especially beneficial to our employees, as we were able to tailor our learning experience and develop new digital skills at An Post.  The LEAD Forum was a great opportunity to share how the An Post Institute supports our people and work with UCD Professional Academy again to continue developing our future skill needs.”