The MA/Postgraduate Diploma programme is an internationally recognised qualification with the course content informed by the agreed competencies and professional standards for Health Promotion. The programme is an IUHPE (International Union of Health Promotion and Education) Accredited Health Promotion Course. This means that students who graduate from this course are automatically eligible to apply to become an IUHPE Registered Health Promotion Practitioner on the voluntary register. Graduates of the programme work in statutory services (e.g., Health Service Executive, local authorities), non-governmental organisations (e.g., Irish Heart Foundation, Dental Health Foundation, Irish Cancer Society), the private sector ( e.g., health insurance companies) and in the academic sector (e.g., University of Galway, Atlantic Technological University Sligo, University College Cork ), in a number of roles including dedicated Health Promotion Specialist posts. Past graduates are employed nationally and internationally, in posts in Ireland, UK, Australia, Canada and USA.
The Postgraduate Diploma in Health Promotion offers a taught programme of eight modules, delivered over two semesters to full-time students and over four semesters to part-time students. The MA course incorporates the taught component of the Postgraduate Diploma programme together with a minor dissertation based on original research, which is undertaken over the summer months with a submission date in late August.
A wide variety of career opportunities in Ireland and abroad exist for graduates of this programme. Graduates are qualified to pursue a full-time career in health promotion or to incorporate health promotion principles into their work, expecially those in the health and education sectors.
Graduates from the programmes have found employment in a broad range of work sectors: statutory, private, voluntary and community securing positions in a number of roles including dedicated Health Promotion Specialist posts. Graduates of the MA in Health Promotion have found employment in academia, in a diverse range of fields of health research both nationally and internationally. Some graduates have also gone onto further study undertaking PhDs at University of Galway and beyond, in Health Promotion and other Disciplines. The range of employment opportunities taken up by graduates who come from a wide range of disciplines and experiences, attests to the relevance and transferability of the health promotion competencies gained from the Health Promotion programmes to graduate employability
