Postgraduate / Postdoctoral / Intern Update
Emma Borland has been awarded a Poultry CRC Undergraduate Internship. Congratulations to Emma!
Kapil Chousalkar leaves UNE at the start of August to take up a position of Lecturer in the School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga. Congratulations to Kapil also.
Industry Training Update – Food Processing Training Package Review
This month I met up with Richard Jenkins who is conducting the review of the Food Processing Training Package. The second draft of the revised package is currently on the AgriFood Skills Australia website (click on Food Processing Training Review on the right hand side of the screen).
Richard has a background in manufacturing and he and I visited a large egg processing and packaging floor so that Richard could see what is involved. He will be sending in a report to us but his comments following the visit were that the machinery used is similar in basic principle to equipment used in other agrifood industries. However, he mentioned the possibility of having a new unit specific to the egg industry. This unit of competency would contain specific information such as the structure of the egg, etc. Richard has already visited chicken meat processing plants. The review of the main training package is nearing completion but two other projects have arisen from the review process – one related to Food Safety Auditing and the other to Food Science and Technology. These additional projects are expected to be completed by the end of September.
Schools Update
Mingan and I met with Susanna Greig of the University of New England PICSE (Primary Industries Centre for Science Education) to discuss poultry-specific activities for the PICSE camp and industry placements in January 2010. We are planning to have Years 11-12 students visit industry locations in the Tamworth region and also to offer industry placements either at UNE, in the Tamworth area or in the Sydney region. Thanks to the industry personnel who have indicated that they are willing to assist with this activity.
I am away for the second half of June and early July, attending the European Symposium on the Quality of Eggs and Egg Products in Turku, Finland. This symposium is held every two years somewhere in Europe and is a small, focused meeting at which I always learn a great deal.
