1) Have you ever considered a career in Ireland’s growing Food & Drinks industry?
When I started on my undergraduate journey, I never considered the possibility of working in Ireland’s Food & Drinks Industry. In fact, it was not until my final year in Geography that I started to think about global food systems and where we get our food from. Following the first lecture of the module, Global Foodscapes, our lecturer asked us to do an assignment when we went home at the weekend. This involved emptying the contents of our parents’ fridge and presses of all fruit and vegetable and create an ‘Irish’ column and ‘rest of the world column’.
In my house the only Irish vegetables were potatoes, parsnips and carrots, whereas all of our fruit and the rest of our vegetables were coming from Spain, the Netherlands and as far as Guatemala and India. The point of this assignment was that in a modern globalised world we can buy any fresh produce we want in the supermarket regardless of what time of year it is. It also got us to think of where we are buying our food from and that has stayed with me ever since.
Bord Bia plays an important role in promoting Ireland’s largest indigenous industry. Having turned 25 years old at the end of 2019, this export trade board has helped all food and drinks producers, processors and businesses reach a record ten-year growth when our food, drinks and edible horticulture exports reached €13 billion in 2019. This puts it into perspective that we are indeed a global player in contributing to the global food system. If that does not motivate you to work in this growing industry, I don’t know what will! Bord Bia deals with many challenges on a global stage, such as sustainability, Brexit and recruiting talent. Fortunately, I am part of Bord Bia’s Talent programme for 2019-2021 which I will now talk a little about.
2) The International Graduate Programme
Bord Bia’s Talent Programme for 2019-2021 includes four programmes in connection with UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. There are 69 of us across four programmes: the Marketing Fellowship, Supply Chain and Procurement, Origin Green Ambassadors (Sustainability) and the International Graduate programme. I am a part of the International Graduate programme in which there are 32 graduates. We are located in our Dublin office and 9 International Bord Bia offices across the world from China to the US and Europe. Half of us are placed across a wide range of departments in Dublin which include marketing, export markets, communications, food sectors, events, Strategic Projects, Origin Green & Insights. We are also doing a Masters in International Business from UCD Smurfit. The programme lasts 23 months and the experience combined with a Masters from one of Europe’s leading Graduate business schools makes it one of the most attractive graduate programmes for recruiting talent.
3) My Role in Bord Bia
As mentioned above, graduates get placed in either International offices or the Dublin office across a wide range of departments. I am working on the Brexit projects as part of the Strategic Projects team. We are all aware of how much of an impact Brexit will have on the Irish economy but when it was voted for back in 2016, I really had no idea. I was working in a summer camp in the US when the vote happened and an American asked me how much it would impact me. Being defensive, because some Americans I had met that summer presumed Ireland was a part of the UK, I responded saying it should be ok as Ireland is not in the UK and we are not leaving the EU. He seemed surprised by my answer, maybe I thought, it was because he had just learned that Ireland was not a part of the UK, but in reality, it was the naivety of my answer that I did not realise how much we rely on the UK market.
Last year alone Irish food and drinks exports to the UK were at 34% just one per cent below the entire EU market which really highlights the challenges facing Bord Bia’s clients that rely on exporting to the UK. I never thought in 2016 that I would be working on Brexit projects in 2020!
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson
4) Our Bord Bia Brexit Response: Preparing for Brexit
In Bord Bia, we have a three-pillar response in how we deal with Brexit. These are Insights & Intelligence, Capability Development and Lead Generation & Market Activation. Firstly, under Insights & Intelligence we capture data and feedback from our clients through our Brexit Barometer which highlights the challenges and risks the industry is facing. We worked with 130 client companies in the 2019 Barometer and identified risks in customer engagement, supply chain, customs and controls, financial resilience and market diversification.
Secondly, under Capability Development we turn this data into action. In conjunction with the Barometer we published an Action Plan for clients to map out a plan to respond to the risks mentioned above and to prepare their businesses as best as possible. We also run training and workshops in supply chain, financial planning and customs and controls.
My biggest role is helping to facilitate Customs Readiness programme. It involves a lot of organising and communication with clients to attend two half-day sessions with consultants’ on how to deal with the complexity that tariffs and controls will have on our clients’ businesses. As many of the companies that avail of these training sessions are SMEs, we offer most of our supports free of charge.
Finally, under Lead Generation & Market Activation we play a role in helping client companies go on Government-led trade missions abroad with their products as well as going on trade fairs. I have also played a part in going around the country to Department of Agriculture Brexit seminars providing information on our Brexit supports. Another aspect of my role which ties into the three pillars above is attending as many meetings, conferences and events in order to inform our internal Brexit team as well as our clients on what we need to do to prepare.
I am also fortunate to have been able to deliver insights on our Bord Bia Brexit Food Alert updates. Now that Brexit has happened, and we are in a transition period until the end of the year, there will plenty of new insights to pass on to clients to prepare their businesses as negotiations are on-going. This keeps my role busy and challenging but as a recent graduate you could not ask for more experience at the beginning of your career.
5) Final Recommendations
For those who have recently graduated or are finishing their final year, whether you absolutely love food or enjoy facing the challenges to Ireland on the global food stage, or representing Ireland by promoting our quality food and drinks, the International Graduate programme is for you! If you are successful to get on the programme, the experience you gain will be amazing and quite diverse, you would have an opportunity to work here in HQ or abroad representing Ireland. Being on a graduate programme like this also gives you the opportunity to get to know really great people and have as many social events as possible, from trips away to tag rugby. as a bonus, you would receive a bursary from UCD Smurfit while completing a Masters in Global Business!
If you are interested in learning more about this programme, applications open in April, assessment and interviews will take place in November and the programme begins in July 2021. Students are taken from across a wide variety of programmes from marketing, business, languages, but also journalism, PR, HR, Agricultural Science. For more information on this programme, please email bordbia@ucd.ie or follow us on Facebook or Twitter or LinkedIn.
One tip I will provide if you make it to the assessment and interview stage, that practice is key. Prepare how to do aptitude tests from free online sources your college career centres can provide and learn the importance of answering STAR competencies questions in interviews.
For more information on what Bord Bia is doing to respond to Brexit, please see here. I hope you enjoyed this post on the insight of life as a graduate on Bord Bia’s and UCD Smurfit’s International Graduate programme. There are amazing opportunities even if getting Brexit prepared is not your usual bread and butter!