National Centre for Partnership and Performance recognises DCUBS Students

The National Centre for Partnership and Performance (NCPP) recognised a team of DCU Business School students this week, for their insightful study into the future of work in Ireland.

NCPP sponsored the annual prize for the best group project based on ‘The Future of Work: Options, Opportunities and Issues for the Graduate of 2010/2011’. The aim of the project is to prompt students to reflect critically upon the workplace of the future and the specific prospects and challenges this holds for students on graduation.

This year’s annual NCPP ‘Future of Work’ award was presented by Edna Jordan, Head of Workplace Learning & Development at the NCCP, to Fiona Devitt (BA in Accounting and Finance), Fiona Aherne (Bachelor of Business Studies), Elaine Butler (Bachelor of Business Studies), Craig Grehan (BA in Accounting and Finance), Kevin Lawler (Bachelor of Business Studies), Fiona Nilan (Bachelor of Business Studies) and Don Cummins (Bachelor of Business Studies).

The competition is open to students taking DCU Business School’s ‘Skills for Success’ course, an elective module open to first year business students, first year nursing students and second year accounting and finance students. The students’ project was chosen from the near fifty projects submitted by a total of over 250 students.

So, how do the students envisage the workplace of the future?

According to group member Fiona Devitt, the difficult economic environment will require innovative approaches to personnel management: "I believe graduates are going into challenging times. However, this is the time for innovation. Business leaders can now see that the way things have constantly be done, is not necessarily the most efficient way. Top Quality Management is what I see in the future, where business leaders work with their workforce to come up with the best working methods. Future graduates will be that high quality workforce."