Professor Brian Norton:

DIT’s origins 130 years ago arose from a meeting on unmet skills needs then. Meeting skills continues to be our tradition to this day. We see it as part of a continuum of creating new industries and supplying those who work in them. Appendix 3 of our submission lists 57 businesses that have come out of technology transfer activities in DIT, meaning we are intimately related to them. In every programme we initiate, there is industry participation in its development and ongoing revalidation. Industry and professional bodies are embedded in the creation of our programmes, particularly in those we deliver through Skillnets and Springboard. We also validate the programmes of other providers such as IBEC’s CPD diploma in management and the Digital Skills Academy CPD diploma in digital media production.

We will accelerate these developments in our new campus in Grangegorman where we will have much more opportunity for bringing these activities together. This will allow us to develop new provision in ICT, as well as languages and food technology. This will also see more cross-disciplinary work. We have a strong corporate partnership network. My office is directly charged with ensuring DIT has links at the highest levels with major employers. The focus of the corporate partnership network is the tourism, energy and ICT sectors.

ICT makes up 50% of courses at DIT and it accounts for 24% of the national overall ICT programme total, which makes us a significant provider. There are 2,000 students registered on ICT-related programmes coming out of the Springboard initiative. These are construction people converting their quantity surveyor or building project management skills, for example, into skills for the ICT sector. Our masters programme in software development is organised with Ericsson and its 50 graduates are guaranteed jobs with the company. Again, some of these people came from the construction sector. Our international ICT sales programme, which has been generously supported by Enterprise Ireland, has had 500 graduates, many of whom are working in the ICT sales sector. DIT is also an international leader in digital marketing.

We have 1,200 students in food production technology courses covering disciplines such as culinary arts as well as food engineering and the development of food manufacturing processes. We also have a programme in food product development funded by Springboard. One of the skills deficiencies identified in the food production technology area is supply-chain management or getting the product to market. We have very strong programmes in this area with over 270 students enrolled in them. DIT is also the home of the National Institute for Transport and Logistics. Since we sent in our submission, the Positive2Work Skillnet, which is made up of small to medium-sized enterprises in the retail and food sector, is concluding discussions with us to offer a CPD diploma in logistics, supply chain and supervisory management for 30 students, which will be made up of employees in the food industry, with a route on to the part-time masters in business studies we offer. Another development in the food industry is the movement towards nutraceuticals. There are many highly developed companies in this area already in Ireland and DIT provides a BSc in nutraceuticals with over 100 students.

The teaching of foreign languages is embedded in many of our programmes. In DIT, a practically oriented institution, a language is a prerequisite for all 2,500 students; the languages include Italian, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Irish and English. Many of the programmes have been developed to ensure students spend a semester abroad studying. For example, Irish students will learn Chinese in China for a year as part of a programme of international business and Chinese.