Early Childhood Education and Practice

Early childhood education and practice involves supporting babies and young children to become competent and confident learners through loving relationships with others. Children require high-quality education and care during their formative years. Research indicates that the higher the professional qualification of the educator working with the children, the higher the quality of the setting and the children’s experiences in it.

Course Structure
This honours degree in Early Childhood Education and Practice enables the student to study a diverse range of subjects in order to gain a deep understanding of babies and children from birth to six years of age. Students develop a knowledge and understanding of Aistear, the Early Childhood Curriculum Framework and Síolta, the National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education, essential for professional work in this area of practice.

Organic Agriculture

The BSc (Honours) in Organic Agriculture aims is to provide learners with a cross-disciplinary education in the fields of business and science with a particular emphasis on the application of these to organic agricultural systems. Learners will be exposed to the most up to date knowledge in the area of organic food production including the regulations around the marketing and distributing of these products.

Over the duration of the programme, the learner will have gained knowledge in the production of fruit and vegetables, meat and dairy products that confirm to the rigorous standards of organic food production. Guest lecturers and field trips will be used to complement the classroom based activities, exposing the learner to industry leaders in the area of organic agriculture.

Upon graduation, the learner will be well placed to gain employment in both organic and conventional agricultural settings.

Tourism and Event Management

Tourism is one of Ireland’s most important and growing economic sectors, supporting jobs on both national and international level. Festivals and events are critical for tourism growth as they specifically attract both domestic and overseas visitors to Ireland and contribute significantly to the economy every year. Event management has become an integral element of the Irish tourism offering. Demand is growing for high-calibre graduates who have the necessary skills to develop their careers in this exciting industry.

Course Structure
The course combines tourism and event modules with a strong business, entrepreneurial and research focus. From project management, to designing websites, to understanding key management issues relating to events in the tourism sector, this course equips students with the required knowledge and skill set to develop careers in this area.

Is this course for you?
If you are interested in a career in an exciting and dynamic industry where your contribution can make a difference, then Tourism and Event Management may be the course for you.

Digital Marketing

Course options include:

Common Entry
Business
Digital Marketing
Applicants should choose Common Entry if they are undecided on their speciality and can decide on their degree option at the end of Year 2. Applicants that select a specific degree option at CAO stage are guaranteed a place on that programme, subject to meeting the entry requirements and points. All applicants may change their selection up to the end of Year 2 and must confirm specialism at this point.

Business touches on almost every aspect of modern human society and careers in business are diverse and often highly rewarding. At undergraduate level students can gain a foundation in key areas of the business world, before choosing a specialisation. Digital marketing plays an increasingly important role, involving most areas of business including, branding, public relations, publishing and customer engagement.

Common Entry
This four-year honours degree programme equips students with a broad skill-base ensuring graduates will have a wide range of career options. The first two years of this programme provides students with a foundation in business, with some electives. After two years, students decide on their chosen area of specialism.

Digital Marketing
The Digital Marketing stream is for graduates who are interested in a career in business with specialist skills in digital marketing. The digital marketing option develops specialist technical skills and knowledge including e-business, digital media design and marketing management.

Business
The Business stream provides graduates with a broad-based Bachelor of Business (Honours) structured around management, finance and economics, business technology and marketing. There is a strong emphasis on the application of knowledge and skills in an international context, through modules such as international business; european economics and innovative business.

Visual Communications and Design

Visual Communication and Design is a problem-solving practice that uses image, text, print and screen to communicate messages. This discipline originates from graphic design and now incorporates the traditional skills of drawing, printing, photography, typography and other graphic processes with the new digital realms of video, web and animation.

Course Structure
This course is designed to facilitate a transition from novice student to creative practitioner. Students are taught a variety of skills to achieve this. This highly practical course features a studio environment where students complete projects in a variety of 2D design disciplines, such as: branding; illustration; packaging; typography; advertising; layout; signage; websites; games; moving image, video and animation.

Social Science

The BA (Hons) Social Science is a multi-disciplinary three year course. In times of rapid social and economic change, this programme offer students the opportunity to understand and critically analyse contemporary Irish society and Ireland’s place in an increasingly globalised world.

This course draws on core Social Science disciplines such as; Social Policy, Sociology, Psychology, Economics and Politics, with an emphasis on Social Research and Social Studies in Context.

The implications of and responses to social problems for marginalised and vulnerable members of society are central to this programme.

Special Feature of BA (Hons) in Social Science Course
Students are offered an opportunity to take elective modules in Semesters, 3, 4, 5 and 6. Students may select from a wide range of modules such as (but not limited to) Personal & Professional Development; Social Care, Organisational Studies. Probation, Policing and the Police, and Sociology of Deviance.

If you are open-minded, interested in tackling some of the key issues of our time, and want to develop skills to think differently about and understand our complex world – then Social Science is for you!

The programme is structured to provide students with the opportunity to gain a solid academic foundation in a range of related disciplines. The programme is also structured to enable students to develop their critical understanding of the applied nature of social science, and the importance of social research in critical inquiry and analysis of contemporary society.

The programme emphasises the importance of inter-disciplinarity. These pillars of learning (theory, application, research and integration) are the focus of this programme.

Business in Supply Chain Management

This one-year graduate diploma programme has been designed for graduates of business and non-business disciplines in order to equip them with the necessary knowledge and competencies in Supply Chain Management and business.

Supply Chain Management is concerned with the management of the flow of goods and information through the value chain, from materials acquisition to final consumption. Put more simply, SCM is about being right: it is about getting the right product, in the right quantity, at the right quality, in the right place at the right time, for the right consumer at the right cost. In achieving all of this, supply chain management takes on many of the functions of a business including: forecasting, inventory management, purchasing management, warehouse management, information technology and transport management. Management professionals in logistics and supply chain management functions also work closely with other areas of the business including human resource management, manufacturing, marketing and finance.

What will I be able to do when I finish this course?
Graduates of this programme will find employment opportunities in all manufacturing sectors including: electronics; pharmaceuticals and food processing – as buyers and material planners. Many opportunities also exist in logistics and distribution. This work involves using sophisticated computerised planning tools such as MRP/ERP, interacting and negotiating with external suppliers and internal customers and contributing to project management as members of cross-functional teams.

What subjects will I study?
Purchasing and Supplier Management
Strategic Management
Supply Chain Planning and Control Global Logistics
Strategic Procurement
Dissertation and Research Methods

Elective Subjects
Inventory and Materials Management
Operations Management for Business
ERP Systems Applications

Sports Rehabilitation and Athletic Therapy

This course focuses on the prevention, assessment and diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of musculoskeletal injuries related to physical activities.

Course Structure
This course equips students with the skills to manage the assessment, treatment and rehabilitation of injured individuals by offering a unique blend of academic theory, practical workshops and clinical placements in the final year. Students on this course enjoy state-of-the-art facilities with an elite gym and a fully equipped dedicated rehabilitation unit.

Is this course for you?
Are you interested in working in the management of sports injuries? If you are a conscientious individual, with good communication skills and would like to encourage and motivate people while studying and working in a sport and exercise setting, then this course is the perfect choice for you.

Arts

Art is a diverse range of activities involving imaginative and technical skill and includes the production of works of art, criticism of art, study of art history, and the aesthetic dissemination of art.

This dynamic and highly student-centred course is unique to the Wexford Campus. Students are provided with the opportunity to gain creative skills, creative knowledge, aesthetic awareness and professional experiences in contemporary visual art. A forum for exchanging diverse opinions and ideas is provided through group critique, field trips, and a visiting artists programme.

Course Structure
Students learn creative skills, aesthetic awareness and professional practices in contemporary visual art. Subjects include painting, sculpture, digital media, photography and video, art and design history, as well as engagement with art and the moving image and material and visual culture. Students learn by working on creative projects in a studio context, in IT labs and traditional lectures and by engaging with the local community.

Social Care Practice

This is a 4 year level 8 course of study designed to prepare students for professional careers in Social Care Work and facilitate students who wish to pursue a specific area of interest.

The overall aim of the course is to develop critically reflective, skilled and ethically aware practitioners with the capacity to build professional relationships, in partnership with vulnerable individuals and groups who experience marginalisation, disadvantage or special needs.

The course involves the study of related disciplines of Applied Social Studies, Professional Practice, Sociology, Social Policy, Psychology and Law and Personal and Professional Development.

Entry will only be permitted at year one and applications in relation to RPL, advanced entry and module exemption applications for any year will not be accepted and reviewed for these programmes.

Applicants who seek entry into the BA (Hons) in Applied Social Studies in Social Care will be permitted once they have completed the Bachelor of Arts in Applied Social Care, Waterford Campus or equivalent programme.