Trinity College Dublin is internationally renowned for the calibre of its teaching and research, the breadth of its programmes, and the quality of its graduates. Increasingly it is recognised as an invaluable resource for Ireland’s small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) too.
That’s because it provides them with a range of targeted, practical supports to help them grow and succeed.
That includes working with businesses, via Enterprise Ireland funded Innovation Vouchers, to improve their processes and products.
As well as supporting the innovative startups spun out of the university, Trinity produces graduates with the skills employers need, and also delivers short, skills building courses that help companies build capacity from within. In turn, Ireland’s SMEs provide Trinity graduates with often unparalleled career opportunities.
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Working in an SME typically gives graduates exposure to a wider variety of business operations than they get in a larger organisation. They get more responsibility, more quickly, as well as greater exposure to decision makers.
Skills building for recruitment, retention and engagement
One of the ways Trinity College Dublin supports SMEs is through the provision of micro credentials.
These short, accredited courses last between six and 12 weeks, starting at various points during the year. They allow for flexible learning and professional development in high demand skills, opening up learning to SMEs in a hyper-accessible way that minimises workplace disruption.
“At Trinity, all of our micro credentials are quality assured and developed and delivered by thought leaders and research experts in their fields,” explains Orla Bannon, the university’s head of careers and development.
Orla Bannon
Over time micro credentials will be portable and stackable towards a Trinity award and they enable employers to offer valuable learning opportunities to their teams. That’s a valuable recruitment and retention tool for SMEs, which typically struggle to compete in terms of remuneration with their multinational counterparts.
Micro credentials are also helping businesses to develop new career pathways for staff, upskilling existing team members to move into new roles, and new types of career such as, for example, as sustainability leaders.
In this way SMEs can future proof themselves and build resilience in a fast-changing market.
“With a focus on future skills needs for a rapidly evolving economy and society, Trinity micro credentials are industry-informed and offered in areas of high demand, including sustainability and environment, healthcare and wellbeing, leadership and business, technology and data science, allowing learners to develop skills that are real-world relevant,” says Bannon.
Building capacity at every level
That certainly proved to be the case for Barry McCarron, managing director of Kore Retrofit, a leading supplier of sustainable home services and the country’s first ‘one stop shop’ for retrofitting.
McCarron joined the family-owned business, which is based in Cavan, in August 2024, to head up a team of 50 people. The business is part of the wider Kore group, which includes Kore Insulation, a business that employs 100 more.
Having trained as an architect to PhD level, McCarron had gone on to enjoy a distinguished career in academia, both in further education and as visiting professor at Ulster University. He is also vice chair of Ireland’s Passive House Association.
One of the first things he did on taking up his new position was to enrol in a micro credential course at Trinity called ‘Finance for Non-Finance Executives’.
It’s a highly focused six-week course designed for anyone who oversees a budget, seeks to understand and analyse financial reports, and forecast future performance.
“I looked for something that would cut through the noise and tell me exactly what I needed to know, without any ‘fluff’. So I reached out to Trinity,” he explains.
“It was just perfect in terms of what I needed. The networking was good, with a class full of people with real calibre, and the level of tutelage was top notch,” he says.
“The whole experience was lean and to the point and I got an awful lot from it. We’re a very successful SME with great ambition to grow further and for me, this has been one of the highlights of the year, to have done the course, absorbed it, and been able to execute it.”
He is now advocating for others in his growing team to undertake micro credentials.
“AI (artificial intelligence) ESG (environmental, social and governance) and sustainability are all fast moving areas. As we grow and transition, we are going to be hiring both from without and from within, and micro credentials are a great support,” he says.
Support at every stage
Cathal Wilson is co-founder, director and chief operating officer of Nexalus, a Trinity College Dublin spin out that has developed technologies to help ‘cool the cloud’, enabling data centres to become more energy efficient.
“Trinity was foundational for us. It provided the research environment and early technical credibility that allowed Nexalus to exist in the first place. Being able to develop and validate our early concepts within Trinity’s ecosystem gave us a level of rigour and confidence that’s hard to replicate elsewhere,” says Wilson.
“In addition, Trinity has continued to show genuine interest in what we’re doing as we’ve grown, which really matters.”
He points to Connect, the Research Ireland research centre for Future Networks and Communications hosted at Trinity, as an example of the university’s value for SMEs.
“Connect has supported us in a very practical way through their programmes — working to make strong post-doctoral researchers available to us,” he explains
“On the innovation side, Trinity’s technology-transfer approach has been constructive. Having a clear, professional framework for IP (intellectual property) and commercialisation gives us confidence to invest in novel work, protect it appropriately, and translate it into deployed technology.”
Trinity graduates are now helping the business to scale.
“The quality of graduates coming through relevant programmes is excellent - technically strong but also trained to think in systems and solve real-world problems. Trinity graduates’ training matches what we need as we build complex sustainability and infrastructure technologies.”
It’s why Trinity, “isn’t just part of our history,” he explains, “it’s actively supporting our growth today”.
Trinity will host the upcoming EI/IUA SMEs & Universities Ways to Engage event this month.
Find out more about how Trinity’s micro credentials can help your business
