Enterprise & Community Engagement

The office is managed and guided by the Director of Enterprise and Community Engagement, Dr Maeve Liston. Trish O'Sullivan, Enterprise and Community Engagement Manager, supports the work of the Director of Enterprise and Community Engagement, coordinating operational aspects of a variety of different projects.

The office of Enterprise and Community Engagement (E&CE) enables and connects the MIC community of staff and students with wider society through innovative partnerships that make a difference.

These partnerships:

• Widen access to our estate and increase the range of campus facilities available for social, cultural and municipal engagement by our community.
• Ensure that the knowledge, expertise and experience of MIC staff and students is visible by and connected to a wide variety of relevant sectoral partners.
• Inspire and empower future generations through our educational outreach work that is designed and delivered in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders.
• Working with and supporting communities on collaborative initiatives that make a significant educational, social and cultural impact in Limerick City, as well as regionally, nationally and internationally.
• Offer our staff and students’ volunteering opportunities to learn and develop personally and professionally
• Maintain and broaden our engagement with enterprise, industry, State bodies and NGOs by actively seeking out new opportunities for collaboration and partnership towards shared goals.

E&CE organise and run many educational outreach programmes for primary and post primary schools particularly around the area of STEAM and Entrepreneurship. We carry out this work under the CRAFT Maker brand and run events across the school year for Engineers Week, Space Week, Maths Week and Science Week to name but a few.

CRAFT Maker is an inspirational and creative space where children, families and our student and staff community have the opportunity to carry out activities that fuse the Creative Arts with STEAM, focusing on building innovation, creativity, problem solving and critical thinking skills, all of which are key transferrable skills for life.

This educational outreach also provides opportunities for us to support the work of teachers, our past pupils, in their role as educators in schools across the country.

E&CE champions inclusive and accessible community learning events at MIC, such as the college’s Age Friendly initiatives. We organise and manage college events that make a significant educational, social and cultural impact in Limerick City and beyond.

Such initiatives include Culture Night and Lifelong Learning Festival.

E&CE incorporates career development and employability related activities into the student experience at MIC through both informal and formal teaching, learning and research activities.  We do this by establishing and maintaining excellent working relationships with employers and alumni in providing mentoring, and industry knowledge to our staff and students.

Undergraduate and postgraduate students at MIC, volunteer and work with us on many of our initiatives which in turn supports their own personal and professional development providing effective and impactful experiences to all.

E&CE focus on developing long-term, meaningful and mutually beneficial partnerships with industry and representative groups. We represent the college and work on many projects with a variety of different fora and groups across the region including the Mid-West Regional Skills Forum, the Mid West Action Plan for Jobs, Innovate Limerick, The Learning Hub, Learning Limerick and Explore Engineering.

We support industry in the achievement of their own CSR and outreach work – providing the educational support and expertise on pedagogies and curriculum, through initiatives such as the MIC/DELL VEX Robotics programme in schools across the Mid-West.

The office of Enterprise and Community Engagement is located in B03 in the JHN Building on the John Henry Newman campus. The CRAFT Maker Space is also located in Newman Hall on the John Henry Newman campus.

CRAFT Maker Space

John Henry Newman Campus

Mary Immaculate College

Mount Saint Vincent

O'Connell Avenue

Limerick V94 26N4

Email: CraftMaker@mic.ul.ie.