University graduates are being attracted by Dairy Australia by the offer of scholarships to work with some of Australia’s leading dairy manufacturers. The scholarship program has been designed to attract top university graduates to the dairy industry.
Dairy Australia’s 2013 Manufacturing Scholarship program will see six recent graduates spend three to five days at factories of sponsoring companies including Murray Goulburn, Parmalat, Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, Lion Food and Drinks, Bega and La Casa del Formaggio.
The scholarship involves a comprehensive training program at the National Centre for Dairy Education Australia (NCDEA) in Werribee that covers dairy chemistry, microbiology, and the processing of milk into products such as milk powder, butter, market milk and cheese.
“Each year Dairy Australia offers these scholarships to six new graduates and diploma holders who are committed and passionate about the dairy industry,” said Dr Mani Iyer, Dairy Australia program manager.
“This program aims to attract new people into dairy, train them in dairy manufacturing and hopefully retain them in the industry,” said Dr Iyer.
In 2012, more than 83 per cent of scholarship winners ended up with jobs with the participating companies within a few months of completing the training.
Marilyn Koh, one of the scholarship winners, originally completed a degree in engineering but it was a project in her last year that changed her focus to dairy manufacturing.
“I did a research project on milk enzymes towards the end of my degree and it made me want to focus on food manufacturing. I’ve completed a Masters in Food Science and this program will give me dairy-specific training to use across the industry,” Koh said.
Another scholarship winner, Tasmanian Adam Langworthy, recently completed a degree in Agricultural Science at the University of Tasmania and developed a real passion for the industry after working on a friend’s dairy farm.
“The scholarship provides me with the opportunity to work directly with experts in dairy. It’s something I doubt I’d get to do without the program,” Langworthy said.
Program manager Dr Iyer said there were a large number of applications and that choosing just six winners was difficult for the judging panel. Winners were chosen based on their academic excellence, work experience and communication skills.
“The winners of the scholarship selected are talented and committed graduates keen to be part of our industry,” Dr Iyer said.
The program is funded and managed by Dairy Australia and strongly supported by the dairy manufacturing industry. The scholarship program winners are Priscilla Chan, Holly Colbert, Vivian Chen Gong, Marilyn Koh, Archana Kolasani and Adam Langworthy.
