Hear what our Corporate Training Clients say

Are you considering training courses for your staff? The potential benefits are huge.

Taking a professional course can help your employees gain a sound understanding of the industry as well as confidence in their roles. Moreover, it is useful in boosting their morale and productivity in the company.

To survive and thrive, companies need to stay competitive, relevant, and resistant to both internal and external shocks. By taking care of its most precious resource – its people – an organisation can improve performance and drive efficiencies. We build long-term relationships with our clients to deliver meaningful and impactful training across workforces of all sizes.

We will help you to develop and communicate the business case for training, and the benefits it brings in terms of better retention rates, improved work practices, and flourishing work cultures. Whether you need to upskill or reskill your teams to respond to market shifts or are supporting employees as part of right-sizing measures, UCD Professional Academy is here to help.

New ways of learning

Learning has changed in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are a number of reasons why organisations choose to train their staff. Be it to fill a known skills gap, or to promote employee engagement.

What we’ve seen in COVID times is that learning is very different. With people feeling a bit disconnected and isolated in the current ways of working, businesses have identified how important it is to allow employees to keep learning and growing all the time.

Working environment

Imelda Gaffney of the Irish Wheelchair Organisation is of a similar mind: “If we provide a good working environment where people have the opportunity to learn and grow, people are going to stay with us. In the current economy people are moving jobs quite regularly, it’s important to have things in place that make people think “oh I’m going to stay here because there are opportunities here for me to progress my career in a variety of different ways”. I see learning and development as one of those ways.”

Her organisation has a specific budget for learning and development, and made use of UCD Professional Academy’s multi-course discount.

“There were two themes that had emerged,” Imelda says. “One was around project management and the other around leadership and management. We’ve just completed our performance development framework, so we’ve had some interest in the performance management course. And I would expect further interest in that as we roll out the performance development framework.”

One of the things that was most impressive to Imelda was that UCD Professional Academy was delivering on trends that her organisation had noticed through this development framework.

With courses that make use of the latest industry thinking, and a network of leading consultants and experts, UCD Professional Academy taps into the trends and innovations coming over the horizon to design certifications that are customised to specific needs.

Smooth operations

One constant refrain is the smoothness of operations and the dedication of the staff at UCD Professional Academy.

Imelda mentioned quick calls where details were explained quickly and succinctly. “I would send over a list of the students and then UCD Professional Academy would contact them directly and that’s what just made it run smoothly. It just made more sense that UCD Professional Academy would contact them directly at that point – nothing gets lost along the way and it was very effective.”

Similarly, student Maeve Bray reached out for guidance following a rocky few weeks where she felt overwhelmed by the material. “Every time I reached out there was someone to help, it was always friendly and positive,” she said.

A video product manager for the RTÉ Player, Maeve was busy working on the Paralympics in Tokyo while her Data Analytics course was running, but whenever she sought advice she received it, be it which module to follow, where to look for to learn more and gain further depth.

“It was always more than I expected. They encouraged me to keep going for a little bit longer.”

Newfound confidence

The benefits were immediate for Maeve. “I gained the skills around being able to run the analytics myself, but more than that passing the course it gave me confidence – I can sit at any meeting and contribute with the same level of knowledge as anyone else, while previously I was a bit unsure of that part of my role,” she said

“When you see how to do something and apply it to the real world, it’s instant gratification. It’s given me what I needed.”

Imelda also mentions the confidence that a UCD Professional Academy course can offer its participants.

“For many people it was about work they’d already taken on, and this was going to help them do it and understand it better,” she explains. “For example, we’d have someone who’s in a project officer role but hasn’t done project management. They found it really useful, they found the templates useful.

“They can now look at things differently in terms of how they’d implement the project. For example, they could say to their line manager that no, we’re not starting this project until X is in place. Even to have the confidence to do that after doing the course is a huge benefit, both for the individual and for the organisation.”

Desire to learn

As a company, understanding any limitations is key and that’s where something like UCD Professional Academy can step in.

UCD Professional Academy offers more than 40 courses in areas such as Leadership and Management, Marketing, Data Analytics and Business, for example.

With short-sharp courses offered in multiple formats, employees are able to fit learning and upskilling into their busy lives.

Online experience

The capacity to study online is also a major boost for potential students.

“I would have been exhausted if I’d worked a full day and then gone to UCD, then gone home,” says Maeve. “I watched the lectures back two or three times, which I wouldn’t have got to do in a physical lecture – I would have struggled if that wasn’t there,” she added.

“The online opportunity meant that they could do it in a flexible way,” said Imelda. “They didn’t have the issue of having to travel an hour or two and then back. That’s what made it attractive for people.”

Flexibility

Building on that flexibility is the short nature of the courses. Filled with up-to-the-minute knowledge and information, the courses are geared towards working professionals who can integrate their learnings into their daily practice.

“I would particularly recommend it because it’s a 12-week course,” said Maeve. “It’s achievable. If you need to put in extra time, it’s short-term pain,” she says, but ultimately worthwhile.

Other students are similarly enthused about their experiences, according to Imelda.

“We’ve already had some people enquiring as to when the next lot of courses are coming,” she said. “From the feedback we’ve received from the students who have attended so far, we would absolutely be happy to recommend the courses to other companies and organisations like ourselves.”

This kind of feedback and enthusiasm is testament to the quality of the courses, the materials and the lecturers at UCD Professional Academy.

UCD Professional Academy creates tailored courses for employees that reflect the real-world business context they are working in. Tell us the outcomes you need to achieve, and we will deliver cutting-edge Professional Academy Diplomas, qualifications and training that develop job-ready skills.

Contact us here today to find out how we can fulfil your learning and development goals.