Dr. James Cunningham:

In regard to university courses, Dr. Patrick Collins and I mapped the island of Ireland. We identified 385 programmes on offer. Application focuses on music, creative expression and technology. We recommend that could be enhanced and grown. We found a lot of evidence of collaboration with industry partners in terms of students having opportunities to work with creative companies and various businesses. When one looks at our colleagues in Finland and Sweden it is clear that could be even further enhanced. It is necessary to grow the capacity. If the industry is to grow as a whole, we need to ensure there is creative talent in terms of the early stage career graduates but also in terms of people who want to get into the industry in later life or want to change career direction. There is a clear need to retain graduates in order that they could explore the creation of their own business within a university or institute of technology environment, and that they would be supported and mentored in doing that. For example, we looked at the Finnish example of the pro-academy.

They have a different model of education and spend three years working on a business idea. They take some courses and are self-managed and self-taught. They have creative champions who mentor them through that process. These are innovative ideas that could be brought here to expand capacity within the third level sector and support the growth of the sector as a whole.