The WIT-led Strengthening and Protecting the Funds Industry in Ireland in collaboration with partners Cork Institute of Technology, State Street, and BNY Mellon was awarded €2,048,180
The Strengthening and Protecting the Funds Industry in Ireland proposal led by Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) has been approved under the Human Capital Initiative Pillar 3 (Innovation and Agility).
The WIT-led Strengthening and Protecting the Funds Industry in Ireland in collaboration with partners Cork Institute of Technology, State Street, and BNY Mellon was awarded €2,048,180.
The Human Capital Initiative (HCI) will deliver an investment targeted towards increasing capacity in higher education in skills focused programmes designed to meet priority skills needs.
New academy
The funding will permit the establishment of an Academy for Investment Fund Executive Education and Development at WIT. Initially, the Academy will provide educational development and support to those organisations operating within the region with a view to expanding outside the region after an initial bedding in period. The Academy will develop a suite of modules leading to a level 9 masters award with exit points along the way delivered on a flexible platform using blended learning technologies. The proposed programme will also help participants begin the real transformation agenda in their own organisations with a capstone action research project or applied business project to complete the award.
Welcoming the announcement Dr Thomas O’Toole, Dean of the Business School, said: “The funding will be of benefit to all those working in the industry who are interested in developing their careers further. Current events have shown that, perhaps, there is now an alternative skill set required so that people can operate effectively in under new and evolving circumstances. Concepts such as ‘adaptability’ and ‘resilience’ have now entered the normal discourse: these are the types of concepts, amongst others, that participants will explore on the programmes developed by the Academy.”
Regional employment
WIT has a long relationship with the investment fund sector and many WIT graduates are employed in the region and beyond at all levels of these organisations. The South East has seen a rapid expansion of the investment fund sector. There are now almost 1,500 employed in the sector and this level of employment has proven to be resilient to economic shocks. Recent analysis undertaken by Irish Funds has projected that employment in the sector will increase in the medium term.
As the leading providers of professional business education in the region, the funding of this project is an acknowledgement that WIT has the experience and ability to underpin the further development of the sector in the region.
Main Campus Cork Road, Waterford City, 
