South West College has an annual budget of £41 million with 18,000 student enrolments and 900 staff across its modern campus buildings. It aims to support the regional economy through skills development, research and development, and partnerships with local businesses. 99% of businesses in its catchment area have fewer than 50 employees. The College focuses on technical mentoring, training, STEM courses, and supporting staff and student innovation. It delivers various programmes to support local SMEs through skills training, innovation vouchers, knowledge transfer partnerships, and case studies of collaborations. The College has an Innovation Centre that provides industry equipment, prototyping facilities and EU project partnerships to stimulate innovation. It impacts curriculum through its STEM activities and
4. Regional Economic Strategy
• Support economic productivity
• Knowledge, skills, RD & I transfer
• Stimulate STEM
• Support manufacturing
• Interact with collaborative networks
• Work in partnership with other
Departments
9. InnoTech Context
Broaden international reach of the College
Deliver industrial knowledge transfer and
technology development
Deliver bespoke training and technical
mentoring to industry in priority skills areas
Increase the number of students studying
STEM courses
10. SWC SME Engagement
• Technical mentoring & Training
• R,D & I
• EU programmes
• STEM
• Staff and student innovation
support
22. “On average, each company taking part on the FUSION
programme benefits from over £1 million worth of sales
or efficiency savings in the three years following the
project”
20 FUSION & KTP graduates
across Ireland
- Fusion Exemplar Winner (2015)
23. Innovation Vouchers
• 184 Invest NI Vouchers
• 4 Pooled Vouchers – 25 projects
• Highest delivery in FE sector
NI Universities, South West College
and CAFRE accounted for
over 85% of vouchers
awarded in NI
Quality/Knowledge of
academics by institution
type*
Good/Very good
NI Universities 77%
NI Colleges 82%
Other (ROI/CAFRE/AFBI) 81%
30. • Northern Ireland Passive House Chapter
• Passive House Accredited Designer
• Energy Storage Conference
• Next steps to sustainable construction
• Biogas Optimisation
• Biomass manufacturing
• Air tightness techniques & methods
• DEL FE Committee
CREST Delivery
31. • STEM Green Generation
Workshops
• CREST Open Days
• Construction Workshops
• Level 3, Fd.Sc, B.Sc
• Student Placements
Enhancing student experience
32.
33.
34.
35. idea
• Industry standard equipment
• Rapid prototyping
• 3D printing
• Laser cutting
• Workshop machines
• CAD & Graphics facilities
• 3D projection & touch screen
41. IMPACTS ON CURRICULUM
> Key Skills
> Importance of STEM
> GCSE choice
> T-Shaped Learners
> Specific curriculum development
STEM
42. 42
Impactful learning -
Feedback from participants
indicates that 96% are more
likely to select STEM subjects
for further study following a
visit to the STEM Centre.
43. Innovation Centre Delivery 14/15
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Total
Enquiries 0 29 18 4 341
Industry
Projects 0 30 17 5 302
Events 17 23 14 6 48
Curriculum
activity
Classes
held 38 60 54 20 172
Students 1,160 1,061 743 330 3,294
44.
45. 41 partners
11 countries
Projects in
• Engineering/Manufacturing
• Renewable Energy
• Hospitality and Tourism
• ICT
13 EU projects LIVE
- Erasmus+ x8
- Interreg x4
- FP7 x1
EU Projects
46. ▪Effluent recycling using renewable energy crops
▪GIS mapping of biomass resource
▪Identification of potential sites for bioremediation
ANSWER
47. •Better accessible and sustainable transport
•e-journey planning and alternative fuels
•Address linkages between road, rail, air and sea
48. REPUTE
.
Interreg Atlantic Area €188,000
REPUTE will create a framework for
encouraging innovation in enterprises
promoting the use of renewable energy in
public transport
Interoperability, intermodality and continuity
of existing transport networks
49. .
Aim:
• Provide real-time route planning in large scale urban-traffic networks
• Integrating public transport, supporting electromobility and car-sharing/pooling
• Using a traffic monitoring/prediction and crowd sourcing platform
• Partners; Croatia, Greece, Germany & Spain
SWC
• Renewable personal mobility - benchmarking data sets
• Evaluation of the algorithmic approaches
• Design and development of the user interface
• Final product development regarding the trip planning application
50. .
Aim:
• Provide SME’s with a support network to introduce and develop energy innovations
which would otherwise be unavailable.
SWC
• Needs analysis of energy innovations required in the region
• Tender process for necessary technology innovations
• Develop business plans to assist SME deliver energy innovation
• Provide access to private investment finance to aid the
development of energy innovations
51. Miss STEM
Erasmus+
To involve young females in meetings with decision makers
in the field of STEM in the UK.
Project participants express their voices on:
‘Why STEM subjects and careers are currently
unattractive to young females’
1. Mid Ulster Council
2. Northern Ireland Assembly
3. UK Houses of Parliament
Final outcome
Design and production of animation to communicate the
findings and outcomes of Miss STEM to a wider audience of
young people, influences and stakeholders.
61. Innovation
Training
Modules accredited through Institute of Leadership and Management
Levels 3-7
▪Design Thinking
▪Developing Critical Thinking
▪Developing a Culture to Support Innovation & Improvement
▪Leading Innovation
▪Leading the Development of a Knowledge Management Strategy
62. Awaken Innovation Workshop 1
LISTEN & RESEARCH
Awaken Innovation Workshop 2
DESIGN & CREATIVITY
Awaken Innovation Workshop 3
PROOF OF CONCEPT
& BUSINESS CASE
DEVELOPMENT
Presentation of Challenge by
Company
Creativity Session (Focused on
challenge area)
(covering divergence methods)
Create lots of ideas / solutions
Develop an Minimum Viable
Proposition or Proof of Concept
(actual product or prototype)
1 Page Questionnaire (online)
Creativity Session
(covering convergence methods)
Narrow down on ideas / solutions
Facilitated team development session
(asking questions to gain feedback &
learning)
Environment Focused (PESTLE)
Research
Business Sector / Trend Focused
(FTE Matrix) Research
Agree on at least 2/3 ideas or
solutions to the challenge
Build the Business Model Canvas
across all 10 stages
Look at solutions roadmap - how to
implement
Evaluate and reflect
Innovation Workshops