Leadership Excellence Through Creativity and Innovation
To navigate disruptive challenges such as Brexit, the ‘War for Talent’ and digitisation, today’s managers require the mindset and skill-set to adapt to change, seize opportunities and drive innovation in their business in order to stay competitive and resilient.
This Professional Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership is awarded by University College Dublin. It offers a hands-on learning experience that will contribute to a mindset change and equip current middle to senior managers and those returning to employment with the leadership skills to drive innovation within SMEs and large businesses in all industries and sectors. Participants will gain practical tools to develop and execute ideas of value within the context of a business. Throughout the final module (Professional Practice) project participants will practice how to be entrepreneurial within an organisation and how to inspire others to innovate in a collaborative way.
This course is designed to equip participants with the skills that will help them to become a recognised champion for innovation within an SME or large business. It is expected that all participants will see a progression in their careers.
The fee for this course is €2,600 (EU Citizens) and €5,200 (Non-EU Citizens). It is free for eligible job-seekers, homemakers and carers and offered at a significantly subsidised rate for those in employment via the Higher Education Authority Springboard+ initiative. Springboard+ is co-funded by the Government of Ireland and the European Social Fund as part of the ESF programme for Employability, Inclusion and Learning 2014-2020.
The course builds on almost ten years experience of designing and implementing programmes for thousands of postgraduate learners of all disciplines in UCD and for Industry.
Curriculum and Learning
The UCD Professional Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership has been developed in collaboration with industry and leverages the significant experience of UCD Innovation Academy. It is designed in response to the perceived threats to the competitiveness of SMEs and large businesses. Download a more detailed prospectus here: UCD Professional Diploma in Creativity Innovation Leadership Course Prospectus
What Will I Learn?
Develop an Entrepreneurial Mindset
By enhancing the creative confidence of participants and learning to think like an entrepreneur, participants will build their capacity to identify opportunities of value, to develop, share and iterate these ideas; and to engage the strengths of colleagues to execute these ideas for the benefit of their business.
Acquire the Skills to Innovate
Participants on the UCD Professional Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership will learn to use proven approaches to strengthen their business acumen and to foster a culture of innovation within a business. Course participants will learn to
- Identify and critically evaluate ideas of value from customer insights;
- Collaborate in a way that plays to the strengths of others;
- Communicate in an engaging way to engender support for new initiatives;
- Prototype, test and iterate ideas based on customer experiences;
- Quickly develop and adapt business models to incorporate new opportunities;
- Appreciate the possibilities that new technologies can offer a business;
- Develop the influencing skills to embed a culture of innovation across the business.
Practice Proven Tools and Methods
Participants will practice step-by-step methods (e.g. Design Thinking, Value Proposition Design) to put their newly developed innovation skills to work quickly and start making an impact.
How Will I learn?
Participants on the UCD Professional Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership will learn by doing from an international, cross-disciplinary team of entrepreneurs, ‘intrapreneurs’ and academics at the O’Brien Centre for Science, a world-class learning facility in University College Dublin. In response to current Government guidelines, all UCD Innovation Academy courses are currently being delivered online using remote facilitation. This will be a facilitated virtual experience and our experiential, learning by doing ethos has come with us as we’ve moved into this space.
Innovation Project – Deploy New Skills Quickly
Participants will be required to undertake an innovation project to apply their newly developed skills and utilize a toolkit of approaches to solve a problem relevant to their business (or a business selected for them in the case of those returning to employment). By embedding an innovation project as part of the formal learning of the course, not only will participants have the opportunity to practice their skills but they will have an opportunity to prove the viability of adopting these low-cost, rapid, design-led approaches to innovation to their peers and seniors. Participants will receive innovation coaching towards the implementation of this project from the UCD Innovation Academy Entrepreneurial Specialists.
Learn from a Highly Experienced Team, Embedded in the Innovation Ecosystem
UCD Innovation Academy has an extensive, deep network of relationships across the SME, Corporate, Not-for-Profit and Public sectors. Our team of Entrepreneurial Specialists are themselves practicing entrepreneurs who are immersed in the ecosystem. They have also facilitated innovation modules for SME senior management teams on Enterprise Ireland’s prestigious Go Global for Growth Programme as well as New Frontiers, Science Foundation Ireland’s SPARK accelerator and the Social Innovation Funds ‘Animate’ and ‘Think Tech’ Accelerators.
Guest Lectures, Fireside Chats and Co-Facilitators with Proven Real-world Experience
While our team of Entrepreneurial Specialists are all immersed in the ecosystem, the course will also integrate 5-6 guests through panel discussions and one-to-one interviews offering a ‘warts and all’ insight into the challenges of leading innovation in business.
Learn from Peers and Build a New Professional Network
This course places an emphasis on teamwork, collaboration and fostering a strong community of learners enabling networking and peer-to-peer learning to take place. Through a combination of in-class activity and evening events we hope to create an environment where new professional networks can flourish.
Gain the ‘UCD Advantage’
UCD Innovation Academy is a unit of University College Dublin, Ireland’s largest university. Being part of UCD is of significant benefit to the participants of all of our courses and will offer participants on the Professional Diploma:
1) As Ireland’s ‘Global University’ UCD offers extensive international networks
2) Access to world-class research expertise (facilitated by UCD Innovation Academy) and facilities in a highly collaborative environment;
3) Access to a world-class library facility and study/workspace;
4) Access to UCD Career Development Centre, including career guidance support and online resources for up to two years after graduation;
5) Access to a wide range of talks and networking events outside of the course.
Get ‘Hands-on’ with Emerging Technology at UCD Innovation Academy Labs:
UCD Innovation Academy offers participants on the UCD Professional Diploma in Creativity, Innovation and Leadership access to a high-end prototyping space with equipment and expertise from an interdisciplinary team of 12 UCD Innovation Academy Creativity and Technology Fellows who regularly contribute to modules at UCD Innovation Academy. This facility offers participants an opportunity to get ‘hands-on’ with emerging technology and understand the value that it can offer a business.
How Will I benefit?
This course is designed to equip participants with the skills that will help them to become a recognised champion for innovation within an SME or large business. It is expected that all participants will see a progression in their career.
Participants returning to employment will enhance their CV, gain business acumen related to critical issues facing Irish businesses such as Brexit and digitisation (making them more attractive to prospective employers facing these issues in particular) and join a network of emerging innovation leaders.
Participants in employment will take on new responsibilities (i.e. leading business-critical projects), and/or gain promotion within their existing business and increasingly work directly with senior management.
Finally, for those experienced managers who are returning to Ireland, this course represents an opportunity to reintegrate quickly into the business ecosystem.
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