November 2016 NUI Galway Masters Students Tackle Human Resources Problems

Students from the NUI Galway Masters in Human Resource Management (HRM) and Strategy, Innovation and People Management (SIPM) programmes recently completed applied Human Resources projects with leading local and national companies across a range of industries and sectors. 

Led by NUI Galway’s Dr Alma McCarthy, the students applied theory and best practice to address contemporary HR challenges facing six leading organisations, including Medtronic, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Accenture, Deloitte, Shannon Group and Saolta/HSE.

Each of the participating companies identified a current HR challenge they face and the students completed research on best practice to recommend solutions to the companies.  Challenges included effectively managing multigenerational workforces, talent attraction and retention, health and well-being in the workplace, employee engagement, and employee satisfaction surveys. 

Speaking about the event, Dr Alma McCarthy, Head of Management at NUI Galway, said: “One of the key challenges with university education is how to make learning as real and applied as possible. This innovative project required our Masters students to work on real HR challenges and issues for leading companies so they could apply theory to practice. The companies got some really good ideas which they plan to use in implementing their HR strategy.”

The MSc in HRM and the MSc in Strategy, Innovation and People Management are both approved by the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) for accreditation at the advanced level. Students on these programmes can achieve Associate Membership of CIPD. After graduation, as they build professional experience, they can progress through the professional stages of CIPD membership from Chartered Member to Chartered Fellow. 

Further information on both programmes is available at http://www.nuigalway.ie/management/

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