Garret Kearns

Certificate in Management and Leadership

Donegal – Letterkenny

Can you tell us your name, job title, and the course you studied at ATU? 

Garret Kearns, Project manager @ Pathfinders custom conversions.  

Certificate in Management and Leadership. 

Can you share your career path to date? 

Project Planner for a construction company in Germany. Project Manager @ Pathfinders for the last 3 years  

What does your current role involve? 

Designing bespoke campers, providing a 3D design, providing realistic timeline from the 3D design and budget, tracking progress, updating the client, holding progress meetings, lesson learnt meetings and kick off meetings. Alos run the social media for the company also.  

What motivated you to start studying? 

4 years ago, I finished studying Construction Management in ATU Sligo, so I felt it was the best time as I still had the mindset of getting assignments done and attending online classes so it just suited. I just wanted to further my education.  

Why did you choose this course at ATU? 

As mention I attended ATU Sligo so I knew the ATU was a good place to study and the lectures were always there to help in any way they could.  I wanted to further my leadership education as I feel it’s the backbone of being a good project manager, people say your born you can learn to become one just as easy through this course.  Plus, the online aspect was huge, being able to study and do assignments around work was a huge help! Having the lectures recorded was great as a reference as if I didn’t understand something at the time or needed something for an assignment I could always go back! 

How did you find the process of studying in a flexible manner? What elements did you find helpful? Were there elements you found challenging? 

I found it okay, and to be fair if I was ever going to be late to a lecture a quick email to let them know was always the best way! The lecturers were always very understanding that the course contained a lot of working professionals! The recorded lectures and getting the assignments very eary in the semester was a great help, I could plan out what I wanted to have done and by when without having the usual mad rush the night before a submission date.  

How did you balance work and study? 

It was fine, I was 27 at the time of the study for thankfully I only had to juggle work and study, Once I set myself a realistic routine, I stuck to it and it stood to me, I would stay at the office in work to do my lecturer so wasn’t rushing home to get online in time. And to be fair, work helped a lot by helping with some assignments and allowing me to trial some theory’s that I wanted to see the first-hand results of.  

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? 

Hugely supportive, I was doing the course as a personal goal, work didn’t force it on me so thankfully they allowed me some time to study and work on assignments. Most of it was relevant, One of my projects was implementing a lean approach to work and I got the chance to trial my ideas to see what worked and what didn’t.  

What advice would you have for anyone considering studying a flexible learning programme? 

Set out a routine for yourself, if class finished e3arly stay on and get some assignments done or some extra study! And engage with the class as much as possible. The online learning can be hard sometimes but if you engage and ask questions you’ll get back out of the course hat you put in  

In what way has studying with ATU benefitted your career? 

It has enforced my want to be the best leader I can be, and it showed me different management ways and who to deal with conflict etc. Something that I kind of never thought about when It came to being a leader. Making a routine for the course also helped me make a routine around work, being on time, engaging more, and asking the questions!  

Did this course provide any unexpected benefits to your career? 

As mentioned above it opened a conversation about different leadership styles and management styles which I never knew about and am eager to learn more on. I’m implementing them in work at the moment and its interesting to see how different people respond to the different approaches a leader/, manager takes.  

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

They did to a point, but it was thought and delivered in a way that you could take the core aspects of the lecturers and make it relevant to my day to day which was good! This also helped with assignments as you could pick out aspects that were relevant and us it and make thew assignment usable to put into practice eventually.