A Postgraduate qualification – giving jobseekers the edge! - Bray woman, Maeve Smith held a BSc (Hons) Physiology and Sports Rehabilitation but wanted to excel in her area of expertise. Knowing how important continuing professional development was to her burgeoning career, Maeve began a taught MA in Sport and Psychology (level 9) at WIT in September 2007, completing her studies in December 2008.

Maeve said, “Overall, the undergraduate course gave me a solid general understanding of sports science, but it was not specialised in any one area. I believe it is necessary, especially in terms of the job market, to have a specialisation in one discipline. I can see that professional sporting organisations are now adopting a multidisciplinary approach when looking after their athletes and look for experts in each field, thus making a postgraduate qualification so important for me.

“Doing a postgrad course in WIT was definitely a very positive experience for me personally. I found the lecturers to be extremely knowledgeable and supportive, bringing a high level of both practical and professional experience each day to the classroom. At WIT class sizes are small, so you are not a number. I was able to enjoy the state-of-the-art facilities on campus and had direct access to the most up-to-date literature.”

After completing her Masters in 2008, Maeve took up a full-time lecturing position with the Portobello Institute, before landing her dream job in 2012 as the Player Development Manager with the Irish Rugby Union Players Association (IRUPA). Maeve now looks after the off-field life and career development of professional rugby players in Ireland.

According to Dr Derek O’Byrne, Registrar at WIT, “A WIT postgraduate student not only leaves with a highly valued qualification, but with renewed personal and professional confidence, and a clear professional focus. Postgraduate students come from a broad range of backgrounds; some to update their skills, some are re-orienteering their career; and some like Maeve, want to excel in one area of expertise. Whatever the reason, a postgraduate qualification is highly valued by employers.

“Our course portfolio is under continuous development  to meet the growing demand for postgraduate courses both on a full-time and part-time basis, across an expansive range of taught and research courses at Master’s and Doctoral level.   One of the latest additions is the Masters of Science in Global Financial Information Systems (MSc in GFIS), which was developed in response to the current and future demand from the Financial Services (FS) industry. The MSc in GFIS was shortlisted as Best New Course of the Year at the Postgrad Ireland Awards in 2013.”

For further information on postgraduate courses at WIT please go to here ... For information on the MSc in Applied Sport and Exercise Psychology (previously the MA in Sports Psychology), see www.wit.ie/wd523