The winner of IT Sligo’s Governing Body medal, sponsored by the Local Authority Services National Training Group, for highest achieving graduate in the augural conferring for the online part-time Postgraduate Diploma in Road and Transport Engineering Level 9 was Claire Hughes. Claire has recently returned as an Executive Engineer with Monaghan County Council where she previously was employed as a graduate engineer from 2006-2009. She then took up a post as an Assistant Engineer with Offaly County Council in 2009 where she worked until earlier in 2017. She graduated from Trinity College with an honours degree in Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering in 2006 and completed the Postgraduate Diploma in Roads and Transport Engineering at the Department of Civil Engineering & Construction at IT Sligo over a two year period.

 

This unique blended on-line programme was designed initially as a one year Postgraduate Certificate in Road Maintenance Engineering & Network Management L9 and was developed to meet the needs of skills and educational shortages of road services engineers in the public authorities sector. The programme was enhanced with the support and expertise of the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Local Authority Services National Training Group. This programme was launched in January 2015 and has had over 70 graduates across the local authorities in the past three years. 

 

The programme was further extended to meet the wider civil engineering roads and transportation engineering industry, including those in the design, consultancy and construction sectors with the development and launch of the major award of Postgraduate Diploma and MEng in Road and Transport Engineering. The Masters is achieved with the completion of a minor dissertation on a part-time one academic year basis. The first MEng graduating class will be conferred in 2018.

 

The aim of the programme is to provide engineers with the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the academic requirements of professional accreditation at Masters level with Engineers Ireland, and this focus has expanded the interest in the programme to engineers in the wider civil, highway and transport engineering sector.

 

In photo from the left: Mr. Trevor McSharry, Head of Department of Civil Engineering & Construction , IT Sligo; Ms Patricia Monaghan, Director of Services, Monaghan County Council; Ms Claire Hughes, winner of Governing Body medal;  and Dr. Brian McCann, Programme Chair, PgD/MEng in Road and Transport Engineering, IT Sligo.