As the Poultry CRC passes its halfway mark, the number of completed PhD and Masters Students has grown. While the focus in our Education Program was originally on recruiting new students, as we move into our final years we will be working to retain graduates in the poultry industry. This means that events like our annual Ideas Exchange will take on a new significance for students. Not only will they enjoy the opportunity to catch up with one another again, but they can make connections with key industry people and discuss work opportunities and pathways into their career.
To date, nine of our students have submitted their theses and found full-time employment. It has been pleasing to see that most of these have found employment in the poultry or associated industries. Adding in our completed interns, graduate destinations for the young people involved in our program have included poultry companies such as Baiada, Inghams, McLeans, AECL, Scolexia and Zootechny. We now also have graduates working in closely associated industries including Ridley, Alltech, and CSIRO. Some of our students have gone on to pursue careers in poultry research, with the universities of Melbourne, Adelaide and Sydney offering post-doc and research assistant positions to three CRC graduates.
Several of our postgraduates who are nearing completion have taken on part-time work in poultry-related areas, teaching or demonstrating to undergraduates. One of our students has been doing some part-time work for the RSPCA. We have also had students who have moved on from their poultry studies to teach at the VET and secondary school levels.
The next three years will be very exciting as more and more of our students complete their studies and find their place in industry. They are young, bright and keen and our industry will surely be better off for having them. Feedback from industry about our Education program has been very positive. It is obvious that the impact of the Poultry CRC Education Program is huge and will be ongoing for many years. Our graduates will be a lasting legacy of the Poultry CRC into the future.
