The APRIL board has approved funding for education in 2018/19 to support IPPs, under a scheme similar to that successfully initiated in Co-operative Research Centre for High Integrity Australian Pork, plus top-up postgraduate scholarships and honours projects.

APRIL will provide the successful business applicant with $70,000 over the first two years to help cover salary and other costs associated with training the graduate/postgraduate for three years.

The aims of the Industry Placement Program (IPP) are to:

• To retain personnel that Pork CRC has trained at the honours & postgraduate level, by sponsoring their placement in a commercial pork production organisation within the Australian pork industry in a structured and enhanced development programme.
• To attract and stimulate those university students showing an interest in joining the pork industry into the production side of the business as a career, while continuing their development and understanding of how research and technology will enhance industry competitiveness and success.
• To expose those graduates wanting a long-term research or technical support role in the industry, to the commercial aspects of pork production and hence enhance their future contributions and value to pork businesses in their future roles.

The APRIL Education Committee will make at least one call and potentially two, subject to budget, annually for IPP awards.

The Education Committee, comprising Prof Frank Dunshea (Chair), University of Melbourne, Prof John Pluske, Murdoch University, Dr Eugeni Roura, University of Queensland, Dr Darryl D’Souza SunPork, Dr Rob Smits, Rivalea, Ms Heather Channon, APL and Dr Charles Rikard-Bell, Pork CRC, will meet in September to consider the applications.

Interim APRIL CEO and former CRC CEO Roger Campbell said creating opportunities for graduates and post-graduates in the workforce by partnering with industry had been a successful Pork CRC platform for several years, with five IPPs being awarded under a South Australian government employment initiative which finished on June 30.

“Pork CRC’s Industry Placement Program placed more than a dozen highly credentialed young people in jobs where they engaged their academic skills and qualifications and added value to their workplaces with innovative ideas and typically youthful enthusiasm,” Dr Campbell said.

_{Dr Alice Weaver with Acting APRIL CEO Dr Roger Campbell at the 2018 Pan Pacific Pork Expo. Dr Weaver’s University of Adelaide PhD was supported by Pork CRC and in 2016 she was the first Industry Placement Program appointment under South Australian Government funding to Pork CRC}

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