Ryan Academy offers Ireland's first Social Enterprise Programme in Ballymun
23 September 2009

The DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship today announced a new programme for social enterprise, which will be delivered part-time in the DCU outreach centre in Ballymun.  The new programme will run for 8 weeks from Friday 9 October.  This is the first time such a programme has been delivered in Ireland by a university.

"One of our key goals at the Ryan Academy is to help, support and develop social entrepreneurship in the community and voluntary sector", said Ann Horan, Managing Director of the Ryan Academy.  "We believe that this is important at a time when government is pulling back from funding, and yet we need these organisations more than ever".

In this unique module on social enterprise development, those involved in social enterprises or who are thinking of setting one up, will learn about the steps they need to take as to manage growth in their organisations including:

• an introduction to social entrepreneurship and innovation
• trends in the social enterprise space
• managing growth in social enterprises
• management governance
• using technology for social impact

This programme is aimed at managers in the partnerships as well as those at managing directors/senior staff levels in social enterprise companies or those thinking of developing a new social enterprise or who work in the voluntary or ocmmunity sectors.  The individual sessions are two hours in duration, one morning a week in DCU Ballymun on the Shangan Road.

About the DCU Ryan Academy.
DCU Ryan Academy is a joint venture between the family of the late Tony Ryan and DCU.  The Academy aims to be a Leading Centre of Excellence for Entrepreneurship and Innovation.  Our programmes are tailored to the needs of enterpreneurs and include accredited programmes, master class series, speakers' series, workshops and management skills training.