Since its establishment in 1971, ATU Donegal has enjoyed a long and distinguished tradition of engagement with a range of external stakeholders including Employers and Industry, Professional Bodies, Government and Regulatory Bodies, Community and Voluntary Sectors, other education and training Providers, and Alumni. Some examples of how ATU Donegal collaborates with industry is outlined below.
CoLab Incubation Centre
CoLab is a business incubation centre based at ATU Donegal. We’ve helped over 200 entrepreneurs to successfully start their own businesses, and we are currently home to another 40 High Potential Start-ups. We have helped create an entrepreneurial ecosystem of companies that are working together to create the future of the North West. This is helpful for students as it creates a pool of work placements on-site as well as providing guestspeakers for courses. Students also obtain exposure to different types of business.
To learn more about CoLab visit here.
Civic Engagement
While learning and teaching is the core mission of ATU Donegal, one of our core strategies is our engagement with the wider community and our unwavering commitment to the North West Gateway Learning Region.
This means fostering partnerships with industry and the community that will help students fulfill their future career ambitions once they leave ATU Donegal and enhance their employment opportunities in the region.
ATU Donegal works with other Educational Partners, Government, Civic Society, and Industry to emphasise the strategic significance of Education and Knowledge Exchange leading as it does towards Smart Regional Specialisation Strategies and developing a Connected Region built on strong partnerships between the key actors and a shared understanding of the challenges the region faces and how to overcome them.
Among LYIT’s Key Regional Partners are:
Donegal ETB
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Donegal County Council
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Donegal GAA
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Donegal GAA
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Údarás na Gaeltachta
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Donegal LEO
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Enterprise Ireland
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IDA
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BIM
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Teagasc
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IBEC
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Regional employers
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NW Regional Skills Forum
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Catalyst Inc
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Tech North West Skillnet
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Letterkenny Chamber of Commerce
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Community and voluntary groups
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Post-primary schools
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Primary schools
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Letterkenny University Hospital
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Ernact
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Donegal Citizens Information Service.
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What this means is such mentioned relationships provide opportunities for our students. For example the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding with Donegal GAA, now means that students on Sports programmes at ATU Donegal get to work with elite athletes playing for Donegal.