Partnering for Career Success

Over the past few months Fastnet has strengthened its partnership with a number of third level institutions, in order to provide valuable support and advice to students in preparing for their future careers.  This engagement has proved to be very beneficial for the students and rewarding for our colleagues. 

Recently our colleagues Martha O’ Donovan, Claire McGuckin and Laura Curtin conducted a number of coaching interviews with UCC’s BA (Hons) Economics (through Transformational Learning) Programme students.  These proved to be very beneficial to the students as a number of them had never attended an interview before. 

 “A very belated and much overdue thank you note to let you know how much Daniel Blackshields and I appreciate all the trouble you went to in giving practice interviews to our students.  Student feedback has been exceptional this year, with all commenting on how much they learned from the experience and how they feel this has not only improved their competence in interviews but their confidence as well.  We are indebted to the way you give up of your time so generously and are always ready to support the BA (Hons) Economics (through Transformational Learning) Programme.”

Mary McNulty, Deputy Head Career Services, UCC

Our colleague Therese Keohane presented two workshops to WIT Biology students on CV Optimization and Interview preparation.  There was very good engagement with the students and this has led to further workshops being developed for 2019. 

"The science department at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) has worked with Fastnet regarding CV and interview workshops for undergraduate students for the past two academic years.   During this time the workshops delivered have been very positively received.   Therese Keohane and Laura Curtin were exceptional in their attention to detail for the events this academic year ensuring all students were catered for by providing information packs and delivering the content in a professional yet very friendly manner.   In addition, time was given to allow the students to work on various aspects of their own CV/interview preparation with feedback provided immediately afterwards.   The workshops were modified to cater for the two different groups on the day (i.e. Level 7 and Level 8) which allowed the students to focus on their needs regarding CV/interview preparation.   The representatives from Fastnet have been very willing to accommodate WIT with workshops and we look forward to working with them again in the new year as they have very kindly offered to return to WIT for additional events during this academic year."

Dr. Audrey Ahearne, Programme Leader - BSc. in Applied Biology / BSc (H) in Molecular Biology with Biopharmaceutical Science

Marketing Manager Laura Curtin, a CIT graduate, returned to her old college to talk to Marketing, Sales and Management students on CV Optimization, ‘The Importance of Marketing & Sales professionals proactively working together’, and ‘The Need to be Flexible with your Career Path’.  In addition, Laura is participating in the CIT Joint Mentorship Programme.  This aims to match current students with professionals (the majority of whom are graduates), from a wide range of sectors to exchange business experience, knowledge, expertise and career advice. The initiative aims to enhance connections between CIT students and alumni in relevant industries as well as encouraging and supporting engagement between the Institute as a whole and the alumni community.

We look forward to developing our partnerships further with the third level institutes in 2019.