To celebrate International Women's Day (IWD), we are shining a light on some of the amazing women who help shape National College of Ireland. Find out what IWD means to them.
Adele McIntyre, Student at NCI
International Women’s Day, March 8th, 2025
Shining a light on the women of NCI.
My name is Adele Mcintyre, and I am a student at National College of Ireland. I am in my first year of the part-time MA Programme in Human Resource Management.
Career and aspirations
I completed a degree in Business in Trinity College, graduating with a 2.1 honours degree in 2009. My career since has been spent working in recruitment. I worked for a large global FTSE 250 STEM specialist recruitment company for 12 years. After I joined as a trainee recruitment consultant, I worked my way up to become the Director of our Irish business. I am currently on a career break raising my young children. However, I decided to use this time to further my education and do the part-time master's at night. I also do some flexible part-time work for Public Jobs, as an interview board chairperson and interview board member for civil service recruitment campaigns.
Goals and continuous development
When I finished college, I secured a role in recruitment. I really enjoyed the fast paced, competitive environment. I worked my way up the ladder quickly and began leading people and managing teams, and then ultimately running the business. In the back of my mind, I always wanted to further my education and obtain a master's and get a CIPD qualification. I like to invest in self-development and continuous learning. Last year I applied for the MA Programme in NCI as I was keen to develop my knowledge and broaden my skills and experience. I also applied for a scholarship. I was awarded a scholarship to NCI which is fully funded by the 30% Club. I was delighted to get this incredible opportunity. It has been a wonderful experience so far and I have learned a lot and developed new skills alongside new ways of thinking, as well as creating a brand-new network.
Motivations
I have always been very goal driven and motivated about progressing my career. In recruitment, I loved helping people to find their next role, supporting people with their career path, and helping customers to scale their businesses. Managing people and seeing them grow has always been motivating to me. I am naturally quite competitive, and I always endeavour to do well at anything I take on. My young children are now my biggest motivation, I want them to grow up seeing me taking on new challenges, pushing myself outside of my comfort zone, and see me graduate from the MA Programme! It is busy juggling everything and it is challenging work. I am so glad I pursued it though, and I am delighted to have gotten this fantastic opportunity through the 30% Club. It is challenging, but I know the additional qualifications will enhance my CV, develop me further as a leader, and stand to me in my career.
International Women’s Day
International Women’s Day is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements and to acknowledge the progress that has been made towards gender quality, but it also a time to reflect on the gap that still exists and the challenges that women face globally. International Women’s Day promotes conversation and shines a spotlight on the issues that exist. Some companies make a lot of noise about International Women’s Day and do a lot of promotion on the day. It really is important to look beyond the day to see what they are doing on an ongoing basis, all year round, to ensure they are attracting and retaining women, have gender diversity, have equal opportunities for the women in their business, and have equal representation at board level. It is important that companies are committing to taking real, measurable actions to drive change and be accountable.
Enabling women to lead
In my experience, I have seen a disproportionate level of women at senior leadership level. It is important for businesses to have equal representation throughout all levels. Companies need to think long term about how to address this and be proactive in their approach, in line with this year’s theme, they need to “Accelerate Action.” I have been fortunate in my career to work with many brilliant women, and I’ve benefited from having incredible mentors, executive sponsors, coaches, and role models to support me in my development and progression. Having access to these kinds of resources can really help women in their career. Companies need to do more to help women get to the top but also to support them in staying there, particularly for women who decide to have a family and are trying to maintain their careers. Many working parents face even bigger challenges and unconscious bias, so flexible working, family related policies, positive maternity leave experiences, and giving women equal opportunities really helps.