It has been a very busy time in the Education division preparing for the Spring 23' intake. Our weekly webinar series is continuing to be very popular. We have had Open Days in Limerick, Cork and Dublin which were well attended. Ann Ryan has been busy setting up Canteen Sessions in Alexion, Abbie, Takeda, Cambus Medical and Zoetis which is a great opportunity to speak to those working in the sector and helping them figure out their education journey. And lot's more! Continue reading for a breakdown across the regions of all that has happened.

The MSc in Medical Device Technology and Business (in collaboration with Griffith College) went through a QQI panel recently and the panel recommended the programme for validation (subject to conditions). It was a very successful day overall and much work was put into preparing for this day

 We were also successful in a panel review of our first micro-credential programmes through QQI which were also recommended for validation (subject to conditions) . These five programmes are subsets of our current Innopharma Higher Certificate in Process Digitisation. It is intended to commence the delivery of these programmes in March through our collaboration with the Louth & Meath ETB.

The 5 micro credential programmes are as follows:

• L6 Certificate in Supply Chain

• L6 Certificate in IT & Industrial Automation

• L6 Certificate in Data Visualisation and Analysis

• L6 Certificate in Transversal Skills for a Digital Workplace

• L6 Certificate in Operational Excellence

• These are short programmes that will be certified by QQI to support industry needs.

Throughout the month of November, we held four graduations in Griffith College in Dublin, Cork and Limerick and in TUD. Across all the gradations there were 23 students from every subject discipline interviewed for testimonial videos, during which many graduates spoke very highly of both staff and their experience with Innopharma Education. It was great to get back out to graduations again and meet with these people to hear about how our programmes have been a benefit to them, their careers and life in general.

It has been a very busy quarter for the Midwest Region. Our 7 programmes that commenced in Limerick in September are all now preparing for their upcoming exams in January. 

We are actively recruiting for our next intake of Programmes on Jan 23 and had a very successful Open Day on November 29^th and Ann & Kevin joined us for the event .

We have attended a number of events, Expos and site visits attended.  It has been great to network and engages with Intreo DSP & employers within Med Tech, Biopharma and service sectors. This has also been a great opportunity for continuing to raise our profile and generating brand awareness.

Aisling & Anne with Monica Redmond & Samantha Malynn at Medtronic (see photo below). This was the second site visit  to Medtronic and another very successful event . Aisling and Anne met with 25 of their employees whom are interested in taking up one of our programmes  and we are now in the process of guiding them through same.

PHARMA INDUSTRY AWARDS 2022

Following on from previous years, Innopharma sponsored the Pharma Industry Awards 2023. A group from across the divisions attended on November 10^th in the new Radisson Blu convention centre. It was an enjoyable and busy night networking. Kevin presented our sponsored award "The Partnership Alliance" of the Year Award to Roche Diagnostics and Centric Health.

This year we had also been shortlisted for two awards:  Our Validation Engineer Work Simulation Training Programme has been shortlisted for the Graduate Training Programme of the year and is being sponsored by Bio PharmaChem – Skillnet. Secondly, the Digital Maturity and Sustainability Leadership Programme has been shortlisted for the PharmaEducation and Training Award, sponsored by Sirus. Unfortunately, we didn't come home with an award ourselves but we had a great night and are proud to be invited as sponsors each year and also be shortlisted for two awards. It is a great event to spread the Innopharma name and maybe next year will be our year!

My name is Caroline Wilson and I’m the new Receptionist/Administrator based in Sandyford.  I previously worked in Takeda Pharmaceuticals in Bray 18yrs+ supporting many departments with admin support, PA management support, document controller for QA, document management for Engineering Projects, procurement support, everything, and anything! My dad is from India and my Mum is from Tullow, they met at barn dance in Tullow long story 😊…and I grew up on Dublin northside but now living in Wicklow.  My hobbies are music, concerts, socialising, gym, adore animals and love to learn and there is a lot to learn at Innopharma! 

We have 14 Springboard + & HCI funded programmes starting over 4 different locations in the new year. The team has been busy recruiting, processing applications and running events over the past few weeks and we are nearly there, halfway to our target!  We look forward to welcoming the new cohorts to the Innopharma Education community in the new year.

QQI 10TH ANNIVERSARY CONFERENCE

Innopharma Education were successful in being selected to give a lightning talk presentation at a recent QQI conference held in Croke Park. The submission was made under the heading of Enterprise and Education in partnership: Connecting programmes and employability. Our entry was successful for both the poster submission and the opportunity to give lightening talk live on the day of the conference.

PRESENTATIONS

We were invited to speak at the Future of Medicines Forum in November was co-hosted with IPHA and NIBRT. This event was launched by Dara Calleary, Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation (I hope to get a photo for this).

Over the last few months, we attended some Department of Social Protection events nationwide to promote all our courses and made good connections with staff in the Dublin region for future promotion opportunities.

At the end of November and beginning of December, we help open day sessions in Limerick, Cork and Dublin. A good attendance of potential students at each particularly in Cork and we hope to see a number of attendees from each across the regions commence our courses in 2023.

LIMERICK GRADUATION

There were 26 graduates from the PG Dip in Science & Medical Device Technology & Business and we had 9 graduates attend the ceremony. Orla McKiernan, Finbarr Sheehy, Sandra Mooney, Mary Jo & I attended the event. 

Overall our marketing activities have been performing very well. Google Analytics reported that all channel traffic was up for 17% YoY while leads were up 27%, excluding social leads with total to 350 leads, this brings it to a 133% increase. Paid social recorded 375 new social enquiries in November while search activities drove 131 leads as well as 9 phone calls. Email recorded 1,067 opens and 99 sessions as part of the 2 weekly newsletter in November.

Over the last few months, our blog articles on the Innopharma Education site have been performing very well, not only have they doubled the users visiting our website but we can see that the email campaigns that include article links are driving engaged traffic back to the site. These users are spending an average session duration of 3 minutes on the site – one of the highest across the channel. In order to continue this performance, we decided to change our strategy so that we can increase the volume of content we publish each month. This strategy involves Wolfgang creating 2 blogs per month and our Education team creating the other two assisted by a brief. As we are into the second month of our new content strategy, it is hard to see the results however one of our November blogs has already reached 10 unique page views with no additional promotions. A special thank you to all the team who have helped out with the content briefs so far. We look forward to creating new blogs in the new year so watch out you could be called a writer soon enough!

THE FINAL QUARTER HAS BEEN A BUSY TIME FOR TS!

Cohort 20 programme is ongoing at present. 

Cohort 21 – currently recruiting 

Tech Services are currently recruiting for our next programme in Advanced Validation Practices due to commence in February 2023

There’s a lot of interest in the programme & a lot of applicants which is very positive.

Temi Olaoye-Williams

My name is Temi. I got my Bachelor’s Degree in Biochemistry from my Home Country- Nigeria.  I have worked previously in an Agro-Allied company for a year after my Bachelors’ where I assisted in the set-up of new  businesses entering into the agriculture sector. I earned a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Science from Anglia Ruskin University in the United Kingdom were I did research on novel (antibacterial) drug delivery into the lungs for 6 months. I trained and worked for a pharmacovigilance company as a Drug Safety Administrator. After 6 months, I worked for a non-governmental organisation that focuses on women and children’s health in Nigeria. In April 2021, I moved to Dublin, Ireland to further my education and continue my career in the pharmaceutical Industry. I recently graduated from Griffith College with a Master’s degree in Pharmaceutical Business and Technology. I started with Innopharma Technical Services in June 2022 where I enrolled for the Validation programme. I am currently working at Regeneron, Limerick as a QA Validation Consultant. I enjoy volunteering. I have assisted in an orphanage, where I taught kids how to read and write and I currently help with soup runs. I love photography, travelling (discovering new places), trying out new cuisine and watching movies. 

Karen Cuellar Tenorio

I hold a Degree Qualified Chemical Pharmacobiology and Masters in Pharmaceutical Business and Technology. I worked as Clinical Chemistry Assistant in Mexico City and as a Customer Assistant at B&Q, Ireland. Once I concluded my master, I had the amazing opportunity to be part of the Validation Engineer Program at Innopharma Technical Services. I started a new position as a Validation Engineer-C&Q Technical Writer at Eli Lilly, Kinsale, Co. Cork. One of my hobbies is aerial dance and I am currently an aerial dance student at Circus Factory Cork.

Christin Mathew

I am Christin Mathew, a Pharmaceutical Business and Technology Master’s Qualified Bioinformatics Engineer with more than 6 years of experience working within the pharmaceutical industry. I have industry experience in drug safety, global regulatory reporting, quality review, and clinical trial coordination. I am an effective communicator with a proven ability to engage and successfully contribute within a team. 

The Innopharma Technical Services validation program helped me to improve my technical writing skill, good documentation practice, and analytical thinking. Currently, I am working as a contract QA validation consultant at Regeneron, Limerick for Innopharma Technical Services. My hobbies are hiking and camping. I am also really passionate about serving public health and protecting nature.

TREASURE OUR CHESTS AND INCREASE OUR STEPS

Thank you to everyone for supporting our 10k steps a day challenge raising €3000 in aid of National Breast Cancer Research Institute Ireland 

We ended this with a Blush Brunch at Sandyford & the ladies in Cork had a brunch at Fota Island!

Congratulations to the well-deserved winner with the most steps - Luke Kiernan! 

• Temiloluwa Olaoye-Williams & Christin Mathew with roles in Regeneron.

• Karen Cuellar Tenorio with a role in Eli Lilly.

• John Costello & Ricardo Ibarra with roles in Grifols.

We also welcome Nicola Rice who has joined the Technical Services core team, taking up the role of Validation Programme Manager 

John Costello

Hello! My name is John. I am from a place in the middle of Ireland called Roscommon, a place full of bogs and sheep. My interests in education have always been based around science. I received a bachelor’s degree in Trinity College Dublin where I studied nanoscience. I learned about very small things, like very small.

I have just begun my first work experience in the pharmaceutical industry with Innopharma. I work with the pharmaceutical company ‘Grifols’ as a technical writer in their validation department! Their site is based in Grange Castle Business Park, outside Dublin City. Before my role at Innopharma, and during college, I worked in bars, hotels and restaurants. So, from these experiences, I now know how to pour the perfect Guinness and clean dishes properly.

Outside of work, I have several hobbies. I enjoy martial arts, football, stargazing, playing FIFA and eating fried chicken. So, during the week you can find me in the gym throwing kicks, and on the weekend, you can find me playing FIFA while eating burgers from Mad Egg (best burgers in Dublin, also don’t try to beat me at FIFA… you will lose). That’s all folks! Hopefully, I will get to meet some of you!

Ricardo Ibarra

Mechatronics engineer with a Master's degree in Pharmaceuticals. Experience in quality assurance in manufacturing sites such as the automotive and electronics industry. I currently work at Grifols as a Technical Writer in the Validation department. I really like cooking vegan Mexican food, playing board games and solving puzzles in escape rooms. My favourite animals are squirrels and donkeys, besides my 15 chihuahuas.

Nicola Rice

I have a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Masters in Engineering Management from UCD.

I spent 3 years in the food sector, 10 years in solid oral dosage pharmaceutical, and a further 12 years in the voluntary sector teaching both adults and children.

In my spare time I train Border collies and German shepherds in competitive obedience and search & rescue. I also train and compete in endurance sports. Ironman distance and above. My most recent race was representing Ireland at the Swedeman Xtreme Triathlon in August 2022. I can normally be found on the side of a mountain with a dog and or a bike.

PHARMA AWARDS 2023

Tech Services were delighted to have been shortlisted as finalists for the "Graduate Training Programme of the Year" Award at the Pharma Industry Awards recently at the Radisson Blu Convention Centre in Dublin

Caroline Fanneran & Audrey Meehan attended from Tech Services – its was a great night!

TUS ATHLONE CAREERS FAIR
 

Caroline & Sonia met with graduates & current students on campus at the TUS Athlone Careers Fair in October.

There was great interest in our Validation & QC Training Programmes.

We are looking forward to meeting potential candidates at the Career Fairs at both University of Limerick & NUI Galway in January. 

Tech Services are looking forward to getting everyone together for this year’s Christmas Party in Kilkenny – our first since Covid! 

On the 7^th of November, our InnoGlobal team; Ian, Sandra, Daniela, Gareth & Luke visited Cape Town, SA to deliver a successful in-person workshop as part of the Digiskills Africa programme.

The Digital Transformation Programme was run as a pilot project and delivered in partnership with the South Africa Radio Astronomy Observatory, SARAO. The funding for the in-person workshop was provided by the UK Newton Fund through the Development in Africa with Radio Astronomy (DARA) BIG DATA Project. The hosting and implementation of the course was led by SARAO and the African Institute of Mathematical Science (AIMS) South Africa.

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SOCIAL NEWS

A huge shoutout to Ciaran who ran the NYC Marathon last month for the Irish Cancer Society raising over 10.6 K.   What an achievement. Where will he smash next?

THE INNO BOOK CLUB

The Innopharma Book Club finished the year with the book “Away with the Penguins” which was liked all around. If you wish to join next year please contact Alex Furbee, it is a great way to get all the best book recommendations! If your new year’s resolution is to take up reading or focus more on ‘down-time’ then give the book club a go!

CHRISTMAS FUNDRAISER

We are proud to be raising money for the Irish Heart Foundation and UNICEF this year with a total of €2,000 raised.