Rachel Burns, Economic Development Manager of Belfast Met

Innovation has been at the forefront of Rachel Burns’s role at Belfast Met for over 10 years. In May 2019, Rachel moved into the role of Economic Development Manager within the College, managing Business support programmes including; InnovateUs, Connected and Innovation Vouchers, all of which encourage and enable companies to innovate.

Friday 18 December 2020

Rachel Burns, Economic Development Manager of Belfast Met

Innovation has been at the forefront of Rachel Burns’s role at Belfast Met for over 10 years. In May 2019, Rachel moved into the role of Economic Development Manager within the College, managing Business support programmes including; InnovateUs, Connected and Innovation Vouchers, all of which encourage and enable companies to innovate.

From product design and prototype development to upskilling projects, Rachel works with companies to promote and embed innovation skills within their day-to-day operations. Rachel said about her role, “I love that I can meet a company, discuss a product idea where it is simply a sketch on a piece of paper or a plan in their head, then over the next year I become part of the journey that sees Belfast Met turn that company’s vision into a reality.”

Working in the largest FE College in Northern Ireland, Rachel manages a wide variety of projects, on an average day she could be discussing projects in areas of IT such as Virtual Reality or App Development through to projects in Recipe Development, Garment Design and 3D Printing.

Whilst Rachel works with companies to help them adapt and transform their services, during the coronavirus pandemic Rachel had to find new innovative ways to continue to deliver the programmes and provide support to businesses. Rachel continued, “We moved as many innovation training projects online as we could, our qualified lecturers even demonstrated food development projects virtually. Delivery staff were provided with equipment such as 3D printers that would enable them to continue to work from home.”

The challenges of working virtually were also met personally by Rachel as she continued to work full-time from home, whilst simultaneously juggling parenting her two young daughters, aged 5 and 2.

Working to engage and support companies during lockdown, Rachel and her team developed and delivered the “Webinar Wednesdays” series. The series covered a variety of topics including “Creating a Power BI Dashboard”, “Digital Disruption in Hospitality” and “The New Product Design Process”, to help businesses through a turbulent trading environment by informing them of emerging technologies they could use to innovate and adapt.

In addition to the package of Innovation programmes, Rachel manages Skills Focus, a programme funded by the Department for the Economy, to increase the skill level of the workforce in SMEs across Northern Ireland. Since moving into her new role in 2019, Rachel has supported over 400 people being upskilled through the programme. Most recently, Rachel has taken on management of the Skills Intervention Programme, delivering a range of online short courses that support skills development for those whose jobs have been impacted by Covid

Rachel concluded, “The pandemic has had an impact on every individual and business, by managing the fully funded training and innovation programmes at Belfast Met, I hope that I can provide support that leads to employment for individuals, businesses to retain and upskill staff and overall contribute to an economy of innovation and growth.”

If you would like to find out more about what Belfast Met can do to support your business or about upcoming fully funded courses, contact Rachel and her team by Email cedsi@belfastmet.ac.uk or visit the website www.belfastmet.ac.uk/support-for-business

Friday 18 December 2020