An integral component of the MBA programme is the Capstone Consulting project which is completed by our full-time students over a six week period in the Summer semester. This project fuses all the component learning of the MBA at the final stages of the academic year. It is an opportunity for companies to collaborate on a strategic project with our MBA students and for students to implement what they have learned over the course of the MBA in a very practical sense. Our MBA students work with companies to address strategic or operational business issues that a company wishes to address but currently do not available resources to do so. It is an invaluable opportunity for students to gain experience in sectors that they may not have worked in prior to commencing the MBA.
Working in teams of three to four, MBA students are highly motivated and bring diverse personal and professional experience to the teams. Companies have actively engaged with the Capstone Consulting Project for over 7 years which is testament to the value and benefit that world-class organisations place on this initiative and many students have secured jobs post MBA with the company that they complete their project with. The end of the project initiative culminates with the submission of a full report including methodology, analysis and recommendations for the company.
The MBA Programme Office liaises with a diverse range of organisations to compile a selection of interesting, thought provoking and challenging projects that offer opportunities for personal and professional growth to our students. Last night, the MBA Programme hosted a successful Company Networking Event in which organisations pitched their project ideas and networked with the MBA students to answer any questions that they had. We are delighted to have 19 companies involved in the process this year across a range of industry sectors including Tourism & Hospitality, Retail, Finance, Not-for-Profit, Fin-Tech, IT, Start-Ups and more. Feedback from the event has indicated that this networking event has changed the opinions of some students and that they would like to complete a Capstone project in a sector that they didn’t think they would be interested in. Students being open to different options and using the MBA programme as a medium to explore these options through their academic, project based and leadership development curriculum is one of the key strengths of the UCD Smurfit MBA programme. The students will commence their project work in June and we look forward to seeing the results in early August!
Yvonne Harding ~ Full-Time MBA Programme Manager