 And welcome back, this is Around the Northwest and we're out and about today, we do this occasionally and it's great to do it because it's just another sign of normality and it's great to get out and to meet people and go different places and today we're down at ATU at the Donegal campus of ATU here in Leverkinny and we're here for their information day and it's a big day that they put on every year just after the CAO information comes out and at this time there's obviously a lot of students who maybe they didn't get the points that they wanted or maybe there's a bit of confusion or they're just at a stage where whether they're intending students or maybe they're at a stage in life where they're just thinking about education. Well all the questions are answered here today and I'm joined by a couple of people who are answering some of them and hopefully they'll answer some of our questions as well. There's the head of the college Paul Hannigan and Patricia Doherty who is head of the department in business studies. How are you both doing? I'm going to get up the mics here hold on a second. Paul Patricia, thanks for coming in. Thanks for having us John. Glad to be here. Taking some time out because Paul will start with you, it's busy in there and it's only when you realise because we're kind of like the back exit from the canteen but once you're going past the canteen there to the right then it's heading towards the main reception and it's really busy. Yeah I know it's got really busy John. I suppose we've been running this event for maybe 15 years at this stage and we identified a need for people just straight after the CEO results come out as to whether they got offers or didn't get offers or what questions they might have and really we opened it up as a public service not necessarily for people who wanted to come to LYAT as it was or ATU, Donny Gull as it is now but we're very anxious that people would take the opportunity to see what we have an offer and if they're not happy with what they've got look at what options are open to them and we have people from all aspects of the college there today to try and help with that and it's obvious that people have taken up you know the numbers that are in there now are really strong you know your parents with their children coming in you know people coming back who maybe you're looking for other opportunities but it's a real opportunity for us to open up the college let people see what's going on here give them the opportunities to join ATU in the September and you know we have changed of mind opportunities available through available places on different programs as well so there's loads of opportunities and I think people have really taken that on board and we're delighted to be able to provide the service. Okay so in a way it's mostly about ATU obviously but if people have general questions about you know CAO and absolutely absolutely and we know it's a time when people you know big decisions to be made you know are the people going to move away from home you know what's ahead of them when they do that you know what's what's involved in the various programs that they may have got offers for are they happy with that all those sort of questions and you know we try our best to match up to any questions that come near us or follow them up subsequently after today as well and it was great to that we had a lot of pre-registration we knew we were going to expect over 200 people anyway but more and more people have dropped in as it is going on so that's really positive from our perspective. Patricia business one of the most popular fields of study at third level and if somebody wants to get into the business world then your department is a great place to start. John it certainly is and I suppose one of the things that we're really excited about this year is the first time that we're offering honours degrees with a full year of work placement as an option. Okay so for years students have been inquired about work placement opportunities and what we've now done is introduce a full optional placement across all of our honours degrees so you're not committed to doing it if you come to us and study business or accounting or marketing with online technologies but you do have that option in year three to go out on a full placement year to apply those skills that you've learned and then come back to us for a final year. Well that is so important and especially I suppose in business studies to get out into the real world and experience real work but you have a good relationship with you know so many businesses and well established and you know not just in business but you know across the college and that's important. It's really important and we're so fortunate and we get fantastic support regionally from small and large employers and they do come to us as their first port of call when looking for graduates or interns so we're really lucky in that respect but I suppose one thing I'd like to highlight today while this is primarily about CAO and leaving search students we also have fantastic offerings for people who may never have had the opportunity to go to college when they finish school or indeed when they left school early so we have a wonderful part-time degree in business studies and it actually takes as quick to do it part-time as it would to come in and do a full-time degree and the really good thing about it is it's one night on campus here and one night online and if you speak or had the opportunity to speak to any of our graduates they're full of positivity and many of them you know would have been quite nervous about coming into third level environment and you can see their confidence build as they move through the programs many of them have gotten promotions from doing the course and I'm really delighted to say that Inish own skill net are now going to fund this course so anyone that's working or even working part-time can contact Inish own skill net to inquire about funding opportunities for this part-time degree well I think you hit the nail in the head there it's about people maybe who are working or working part time it would be perfect you can carry on and still develop your skills absolutely or in fact you may not be working and you are looking for an avenue or a way to get into the world of work and a part-time and degree in business might just give you the confidence to do that or to help you decide where you want to go Paul business is just one of ten departments here yeah so great choice yeah you know it's an exciting year for us as well because our first year is a to you don't go old you know now at Latter County and Kelly bags a university towns for the first time huge amount of work going in by everybody to bring us to where we are currently and we want to continue to build upon that and to build the reputation of a to you which is very strong coming from the legacy institutes but this is a new beginning for us and we want to make sure that it gets off on the right track we have very strong departments across you know in engineering faculty science and health faculty business faculty and the departments working within those we have the tourism and sport department which brings in Kelly bags and it's really important aspect of the work that we do there as well and we'd like to encourage people to look at careers in hospitality and tourism because it's it's got a bit of a kicking over the last while and maybe programs have improved this attractive because of that but there are really strong careers there for people in those programs and we've seen that over the years as they're all right across the board and I think Patricia made a really important point the support we get from employers in terms of provision of work placements for all our programs I think right across the college now about 60 70% of the programs that students will start on September have an element of work placement involved in them and we've continued to expand that over the last number of years and really it's you know like pre-interview for people getting ready for new jobs that are coming available to them and as the university grows and we see very strong applications this year for it you don't even go as for the other campuses right across the university as well and the strength of our university is that we are in the regions within the communities that are within this space other universities can say their regional locations but they don't have the regional locations we do I think that's a really important element of the service we provide okay connecting people with local jobs I suppose with local employment in a way yeah absolutely you know we if that's what they want well the interesting thing from my perspective you know haven't been here now for nearly 25 years what you see are people who've graduated from here got workouts where now you see their children coming back in here those people wouldn't have had the opportunity to stay here if they hadn't come through the college if we hadn't been here in order to attract the industry into the region in the first instance so it's a virtuous circle in terms of the creation of the jobs the provision of the graduates and ultimately the social impact that has across the region so there's an economic impact but there's a huge social impact and there's a great story to be written about it at some stage that's about making that jump from university into work Patricia you've been in there you've been meeting people so you know what what sort of people are coming along today and what you know is there is there a is there a sort of a theme that you're noticing that might be different from other years it's actually not hugely different from other years but there's definitely a pep in people's step to be back in and back on campus and meeting people every year we would have students come in who are happy with their offer and know they're taking it and they just want to see the place again and meet people we have parents walking around happily and we have people who may have just taken the opportunity to come into the campus because they know it's an open day but what we would say is you know people don't have to wait for a day like today to call to ATU Donegal campus and you'd be surprised the number of people that often drive past here and have just never ventured in because they didn't feel it was somewhere that they should be popping into so we would encourage people to visit the campus because it is a resource for the community and for the region so they don't need to wait for information day and if anyone is out there unsure and really not sure about what course they want to take as Paul said I would encourage them to pick up a phone or drop us an email and ask the question because that's what we're here for and it's in our interest that we help people make the right decision. Some people just might be intimidated by the surroundings and especially now since it's about university status they might just be thinking well sure you know I just struggled through junior well I think we would have had that feedback from people that have started our part-time degree sometimes and they got such a pleasant surprise when they come in on the first evening and realize you know what that this is fantastic this is a place for me and I deserve to be here because the world of university has changed and we've such a diverse student population and we really welcome the mature learners to come in because they add so much to our university network. Paul finally now ATU and having that university status I know it's something that you strived for for years and now that it's a reality it does make a big difference and it makes a big difference I suppose to perception. Absolutely John it's really important from our perspective and it's built upon the work of people over 50 years you know we celebrated our 50th anniversary last year people setting up the college here in the 1970s you remember letter carry in the 70s sorry I shouldn't be saying that to you yeah I remember letter carry in the 70s as well but you know you're talking about a major chance taking the setup of college of that nature at that time the impact that has had over that 50 years was huge and now to get the recognition as a technological university as part of the Atlantic Technological University is really really important and it's great that the people who started it are able to see that happening and the build upon that and we see now you know people look at us in terms of differently in terms of university we're now a university of 23,000 students two and a half thousand staff you know research centers all over the place locations all around the west and northwest coast so there's real opportunities for further development there and we need to have you know we need this to start to leave that message you know that we are a big institution one of the biggest in the country now at the moment and we need to be be confident about our own futures and to build upon that really strongly and I think that perception will start to get among the community here as well that this is a really serious development that has happened here and people will support it and that's shown already today okay well listen it's time for you to get back in and answer more questions okay so I'll free you up thanks for taking a bit of time out Patricia Paul thanks John thanks John great to chat with