DCU's Access to the Workplace - celebrating 7 years

A study carried out by Dublin City University’s Access to the Workplace to evaluate its effectiveness in creating meaningful opportunities for underrepresented students while advancing organisational diversity and inclusion objectives has found that ATTW is delivering for both students and employers. The study was carried out a team from the EQI, DCU’s Centre for Evaluation, Quality & Inspection.

Since its inception in 2019, ATTW has delivered 483 internships across more than 100 partner companies, raising €6.3 million in philanthropic funds. The programme is a transformative professional summer internship initiative aimed at addressing workplace inequality for underrepresented students. It primarily serves DCU Access students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds and neurodivergent students.

The research launch event was held in the Polaris Building on campus, with Access student Amy Harrison shining in the role of MC. Dr Anne Rowan and Dr Aideen Cassidy presented the impactful research findings, followed by a powerful speech from DCU President Dáire Keogh.

There was a student led panel discussion featuring former ATTW interns Eve Meehan, Anthony Dula, and Alketa Hotaj, with employer input from Ann Clarkin, Senior HR Manager with West Pharma, and Stephen McCabe, the CEO of Jones Engineering. Both companies are supporters of the ATTW programme.

The keynote speaker was Mark Hatton, former DCU Access student, and currently based in New York where he is the Revenue Marketing Leader with Tines. Mark’s brilliant talk capped off a memorable event!

Read the full EQI study here.