Siofra McGuinness

Can you tell us your job title and the course you are studying at ATU? 

I am a Production Team Lead and I am studying a level 8 BSc in Applied Industrial Science.

Can you share your career path to date?

My career path in the manufacturing industry started with working as a general operator for Waters a a summer student. After my second summer I decided to stay on full time. Just over a year after making the decision to stay on with Waters I was promoted to a Production Support Operator and given additional responsibilities. After a year in the PSO role I was promoted to a temporary Team Lead role, which was made permanent about 6 months later. I was then promoted to a temporary Production Supervisor role and was covering the role for over a year. When my temporary contract was up, I reverted back to my permanent Team Lead role until a permanent Supervisor role opens up.

What does your current role involve?

My current role involves being a people leader and completing employee reviews, as well as having a more technical aspect to it whereby I need to troubleshoot orders on the production floor. There is also a lot of resource allocation and planning that goes into the role to ensure that all customer shortages are met in a timely manner. The role also involves being the subject matter expert on any improvement projects for my area.

What motivated you to start studying? 

I was motivated to start studying to improve my knowledge. I wanted to be able to make myself as educated and qualified as possible to ensure progression in my career.

Why did you choose this course from ATU?

I chose this course from ATU because it was fast paced enough that it could be completed in a year but equally manageable enough with also working full time. The work based project aspect to the course appealed to me as well as the range of modules to be completed.

How did you find the process of studying online? What elements did you find helpful? Were there elements you found challenging? 

The process of studying online was definitely a change compared to the studying I has done in the past. I definitely think that being able to have certain assessments open over a 12 or 24 hour period helped to make the assessments easier to fit into your own work hours, whereby if the course was in person there would be no flexibility.

How did you balance work and study?

Honestly, sometimes I didn't balance it too well. I think the best approach to balancing work and study is to try your best to get ahead on assignments and start them as early as possible. Also try and keep your routine for study consistent and build it into your routine because if you just try to do it when you have enough spare time, it's easy to fill that spare time with something else and end up under pressure.

In terms of your employer, were they supportive of your decision to study? Were there elements of the course that were particularly relevant to your current employer? 

My employer was fully supportive. Every year they give education assistance to employees that are looking to study in a field that is relevant to the company, be it science or business. There is also study leave allowance for exams that was helpful. There were many elements that were relevant to my employer, particularly the Bioanalytics module which was relevant to my specific role, and many other modules could be applied to other aspects of the business.

What advice would you have for anyone considering studying online?

I would advise people that studying online is a great opportunity to upskill or educate yourself while still being able to work and earn a wage. Technology is a great tool to learn and interact with people from afar, and although the course is online and lectures recorded I would encourage people to try to watch live lectures and interact with their lecturers as much as possible.

In what way has studying online with ATU benefitted your career?

Studying online with ATU benefitted my career by giving me the knowledge and confidence to consider jobs in other similar industries or outside of the scope of my current job. It has also opened up more promotion and job opportunities through my completion of a degree.

Did this course provide any unexpected benefits to your career?

I expected this course to make me a more attractive candidate to certain manufacturing plants and production jobs but what I didn't initially expect was the opportunities that I have already seen open to me outside of production, for example in areas like engineering.

Did you find that the elements you were studying had practical relevance in your day-to-day role? 

I did find that some of the elements I was studying had relevance to my day to day role but the industry that I am in at the moment is quite niche and so I found that the relevance was more suited to gaining practical knowledge for the biopharma sector which I am open to moving into.

Learn more about the BSc Hons in Applied Industrial Science here