06 March, 2018

Springboard students from the Diploma in Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Operations attended a Continuing Professional Development (CPD) event in CIT in January.

These mature students who have previous qualifications took the tentative steps back to education in September 2017 to complete this one-year diploma course. On completing the course, the students are seeking to secure employment in the biopharmaceutical/pharmaceutical industry. The course is not only focused on industry-relevant modules such as Validation Science, Upstream and Downstream Processing and Manufacturing Technology but is also committed to developing the students’ confidence in getting back into the workforce. The CPD day involves a number of talks and workshops from experienced representatives and consultants from industry and CIT. The primary aim of the CPD day is to equip the students with the necessary soft skills in preparing them for the recruitment selection process and the workplace environment while keeping abreast with social media platforms.

The day began with a talk from Aisling Kerr, Talent Requisition Specialist from SimoTech, who discussed the “Top Twenty Interview Tips” taken from 4 years of experience of working within the recruitment arena. Aisling gave valuable insight from the recruiter’s point of view. This was followed by a two-hour workshop from Mary Rose O’Sullivan and Maria Nugent from the Careers Service in CIT who purposely designed a number of group and individual exercises specifically for the students to help raise awareness of their skills and strengths. They gave advice on preparing for interviews and answered queries regarding work placement. Mary Quirke who is a work placement co-ordinator delivered a one-hour interactive session on work placement discussing behaviour and professional ethics in the work environment. The day concluded with a two-hour workshop from Grainne Bagnall (https://www.linkedin.com/in/grainnebagnall/). Grainne has 15+ years in professional head-hunting and recruitment. In her workshop, she gave useful tips on enhancing the student’s LinkedIn profile in order to increase their contact base and engage with industry with the goal of maximising the student’s efforts in getting the job they want.

Feedback from Ruth Galvin who is currently undertaking the course revealed that “the sessions were very helpful. The interview techniques talks provided useful platforms to discuss student employer relationships, potential challenges and how to manage them. The talks were helpful in matching personality type with job roles and crystallized career direction. The LinkedIn workshop was entertaining and informative in terms of maximising its use as a tool and compounded the necessity of an online presence in the job search and progression lifecycle.”

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