Pig Scholarship aims to get new entrants
A new Pig Industry Scholarship is to be launched aimed at recruiting new entrants and highlight the wide range of careers available with pigs.
The scholarship, facilitated by BPEX and Harper Adams, will offer students at the university the opportunity to spend a funded placement year with companies across the pig sector.
“Feedback from Allied industry members is that encouragement of young people to join this great pig industry their recruitment, and development of their skills should be the key priority of our group,” NPA Allied Industry Group chairman, Peter Rollings, told a press briefing at Pig and Poultry Live.
He added that part of the drive to recruit younger entrants was pointing out that a career in the pig industry didn’t necessarily mean in production. “There’s a huge range of careers, from nutrition, sales, equipment.”
Mr Rollings said that the scholarship, which was modelled on the poultry industry’s similar scheme in partnership with the British Poultry Council, will offer students going into their second year this autumn the chance to apply for a second-year scholarship of £3,500, and a 12-month paid placement, completed in the third year.
Following that, there is the option to award a final year scholarship of £3,500, in the hope that a strong relationship can be built with the student and the company.
“The placement can, in many ways be viewed as a year-long, two-way interview opportunity. But equally, it provides students with a valuable learning process while doing a real job in the real world,” said Mr Rollings.
He called on companies to register their interest in the scholarship with BPEX by the end of June 2013, saying that “half a dozen companies” had already signed up ahead of a student placement fair, to be held in October this year.
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