01 March, 2018

This year an exciting new collaboration between Cork Institute of Technology and PwC was launched. As part of this collaboration, PwC have sponsored prizes of €1000 and €500 for both second year and third year full-time accounting students.

Anthony Reidy (partner in PwC) and Derry Keohane (Director in PwC) came in to announce the prizes. Paudi O Brien (trainee accountant) and Deirdre Collins (senior manager), both graduates of the accounting programme in CIT, also came along to give students an overview of what it is like to be an accountant in a ‘Big 4’ firm.

As well as this initiative, there are many other opportunities for the accounting students in CIT to engage with industry. As part of the CIT module, Nelius Flynn and Sylvia Dempsey hosted a “series of speakers” in the first semester for first year accounting students. All of the speakers were recent CIT accounting graduates and they were only too delighted to get the opportunity to tell the first year students about their time in college and their career since graduating. For example, Padraig O’Connor (graduate of 2015) spoke about his training contract in Finance in CIT and pursuing a CIMA qualification, and Aisling O’Connor (graduate of 2016) told the class about how she got her training contract in EY and her reasons for choosing to do chartered accountancy exams.

In the second semester, Gerry Forde and Ruth Vance will take the first year students on a site visit to Trend Micro on Model Farm Road, so they can see first-hand what accountants in industry do. The visit will include a talk by senior accountants, as well as an opportunity for students to ask members of the accounting team questions.

Work placement was introduced to the accounting programme this academic year to ensure that students get the opportunity to gain relevant experience. Over 60 third-year accounting students are now placed in accounting internship roles. Colm Barry-Murphy arranged an interview evening, inviting prospective employers (many of them CIT graduates) to give mock interviews and provide feedback to the students in preparation for the internship interviews. The keynote speaker on the evening was Sally Magee (graduate of 2010). Sally is an accountant in Apple, and her address on the evening was both entertaining and highly motivational.

These collaborative interactions with our industry partners are well supported and facilitated – often through valuable links with graduates. These graduates are now the prospective employers of our current students. These initiatives strengthen relationships with industry and enhance the relevance and currency of CIT’s programmes ensuring that graduates have a strong sense of the important and varied roles of the accountant in the modern workplace.

To explore how CIT can collaborate with you, email us today extendedcampus@cit.ie or call us on 021 4335302