Letterkenny's Lawrence McNamee graduates with Diploma in Corporate Direction

A Letterkenny native is one of those who completed the Diploma in Corporate Direction provided by UCC and ICOS Skillnet.

Lawrence McNamee was one of 24 farmer directors and business leaders within Irish co-operatives to graduate the course, which is provided by UCC and ICOS Skillnet, the Continuing Professional Development and training arm of the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society.

The diploma programme, which runs every two years, was first offered in 2013. It had to be temporarily deferred during the pandemic and was re-initiated last year.

The programme is designed to improve and support the capabilities of directors and managers in corporate governance and in a rapidly changing agri-business environment. It has a new and specific focus on sustainability across all modules this year.

In the last decade, ICOS Skillnet has provided training and education to over 10,000 co-operative staff across 140 distinct programmes.

Skillnet Ireland and Irish co-operative member companies fund ICOS Skillnet. Skillnet Ireland is funded from the National Training Fund through the Department of Further & Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science.

ICOS (the Irish Co-operative Organisation Society) represents co-operatives and organisations in Ireland – including the Irish dairy processing co-operatives and livestock marts - whose associated businesses have a combined turnover in the region of €16 billion, with some 175,000 individual members, employing 12,000 people in Ireland, and a further 24,000 people overseas.

In total, there are some 1,000 co-ops in Ireland, and the largest 100 organisations employ approximately 40,000 people.