“You get the best of both worlds” with the Bord Bia Graduate Programme

Hannah Montana was more than likely not talking about the International Graduate Programme that is run by Bord Bia in conjunction with UCD Michael Smurfit Business School, when she wrote that song, but she may as well have been. One of the biggest questions facing today’s graduates is whether to continue in education and obtain a level 9 qualification or instead delve straight into the world of work. There are definitely pro’s and con’s to both of these pathways and the factors that govern this decision are often highly individualized. Instead of trying to persuade you that leaving university and securing a graduate programme is the best choice for your career or that you would be far better paying enormous money to give yourself a head start in your chosen field, I will instead illustrate how, with the Bord Bia graduate programme, you get the best of both worlds.

This post will first give a top level overview of what exactly is involved in the Bord Bia Graduate Programme. I will then illustrate what exactly Bord Bia do, and how you will contribute to this work (Bord Bia Placement). Finally, I will detail the Master’s programme and what you can actually expect (Master’s in Global Business Practice).

Bord Bia Graduate Programme Overview

The Bord Bia Graduate Programme is run in conjunction with UCD Michael Smurfit Business School, ranked amongst the top 100 Business Schools in the world by the Financial Times. This partnership has helped to create a graduate programme that is like no other offered in Ireland. Participants of this programme will complete 23 months of work experience with Bord Bia (The Irish Food Board).

For those of you that don’t know, Bord Bia’s role is to bring Irish food, drink and horticulture to the world. They have over 14 offices spread across the globe, with opportunities for graduates to be placed in all. Participants receive a Master’s level qualification with UCD Michael Smurfit Business School, in Global Business Practice. This masters is fully funded by Bord Bia. Along with this, participants also receive a tax free bursary worth around €25,000.

I am aware that this all sounds a little too good to be true, but this high level overview barely even scratches the service. There’s 22 days off, which is plenty of time to travel within Ireland or the country you’re placed in. Another plus is that there are other graduates living all over the world, meaning wherever you want to go, there’s a friend to show you around and offer you a couch. There’s a day off for your graduation ceremony, to catch up with college friends and tell them about your new job. Bord Bia pay for your flights out to your overseas placement and back at Christmas. There’s an intensive onboarding when you join the programme, all 32 graduates will sit through presentations by the Senior Leadership Team in Bord Bia, the CEO, Tara McCarthy and other high level managers within Bord Bia. This helps to give you a sense of what Bord Bia is about and how all departments work together to deliver on the strategic priorities. There’s also practical onboarding, from Excel and PowerPoint courses to showing everyone how to use the internal systems, expense@work being the most important (free food when on a work trip, yayyy!!)

Bord Bia (The Irish Food Board)

For those of you that don’t know much about Bord Bia, let me explain. Bord Bia or the Irish Food Board is essentially a marketing agency. They bring Irish food, drink and horticulture to the world. As I know most people are a huge fun of history, I’ve italicized the below paragraph for ease of reading (or skipping). This details how Bord Bia was formed and came to be in its current format.

Bord Bia was formed in December 1994 by an act of the Irish Parliament. This brought together the former CBF (Coras Beostoic agus Feola – the Irish Meat and Livestock Board) and the food promotion activities of An Bord Trachtala/the Irish Trade Board. In subsequent years horticulture and seafood came under Bord Bia’s remit.

Bord Bia’s vision is that customers around the world recognise that Irish food and drink is world class; that it is of high quality, distinctive, and made by a diverse range of creative producers from its unique and fortuitous island location. They do this in a number of ways; Developing routes to market, identifying market insight, developing brands, working closely with client companies and clearly communicating our message, which is basically that Irish food, drink and horticulture are amazing. There’s nothing like your mammy’s dinners, and its up to us to show the rest of the world what we’ve been harping on about for so long.

Graduate Programme or Postgraduate Degree?

A lot to people that go straight from their undergraduate to a master’s can find that sometimes having a master’s degree without having much real world work experience is more of a hindrance than a help. A huge amount of entry-level jobs often do not require a degree. As these roles are often administrative heavy, candidates can hear that they are over-qualified for the role. The other problem is that if you don’t have work experience, you won’t be qualified for some of the higher level positions.

Essentially then, you’re caught between a rock and a hard place, as my Father would say. With the Bord Bia graduate programme, you won’t have that problem, you’ll get almost two years’ experience (having the time of your life I might add) and finish with a Master’s that’ll stand out on any CV.

Bord Bia Placement

There are 32 places for International Graduates on the Bord Bia Graduate Programme. These places are split between the Dublin office and the International Offices. 16 graduates are placed in Dublin, with 16 graduates spread throughout the world. Once you’re placed, you’re there for the full placement. There’s advantages and disadvantages to this, it would be great to get experience in a different department or market but on the other hand, you become really experienced in a particular area, working there for 23 months. I’ll go through some of the differences between a Dublin or an overseas placement below.

Roles vary within Bord Bia Dublin, there are graduates placed with the Strategic Insight team in the Thinking House, the work here centers on brand development. They work with clients on bespoke projects, developing their positioning in food categories, supply chain channels, creating bespoke packaging etc. There are also roles with the Origin Green and Quality Assurance teams (read more about Origin Green and Quality Assurance here and here). Other exciting work can be within the Sectors (Meat, Dairy, Seafood, Alcohol and Prepared Consumer Foods) or International Markets team. The work between these departments can sometimes overlap. Graduates in these departments will work on organizing trade visits and international trade fairs, developing relationships between global customers and Irish suppliers. Other departments include, events, communications, marketing and talent/human resources. The latter of which, is where, yours truly, works.

In the International offices, of which there are 14, graduates could be placed in New York, London, Dubai, Shanghai or Paris, with various other locations also (see the full list here). I try not to be too jealous of them all. Graduates in the International offices work on a larger variety of projects. Instead of specializing in one area, they receive a flavor of them all. They will work with their Dublin colleagues on trade missions and trade fairs, they will conduct market analyses (an example might be what the market outlook for yoghurt was in the UAE). For some of the overseas offices, a second language is required and it’s a huge help if you’re interested in applying for the programme. German and Chinese are amongst the most in demand.

Now while the projects mentioned above are certainly worked on by grads, it’s not all glitz and glam. Everyone certainly does their fair share of administrative work, from raising PO’s (basically paying bills), to booking hotels and restaurants for Bord Bia staff and customers.

I know these can seem boring and a waste of time, but these boring tasks are some of the things that will develop you the most. Trying to balance your day to day administrative tasks with some of the more high level projects will develop your ability to lead, to problem-solve, to innovate, to build relationships, to adapt rapidly and communicate effectively. It will also help to build resilience and time management, two skills that I cannot over emphasise the importance of.

Master’s in Global Business Practice

The Master’s in Global Business Practice in the UCD Michael Smurfit Business School is a full-time Action Learning programme that is designed around eight classroom-based modules. The modules that students complete are;

• Marketing Impact
• Building and Using Customer and Market Insights
• Developing Customer Value Propositions
• Global Business in a Digital Environment
• Logistics, Supply Chain & Sustainability
• Business Sustainability
• Maximising Performance Impact
• Professional Impact Project

I know you’re thinking now, when do you get a chance to actually do these modules and the assignments, but don’t worry, you’ll fit it in.

When you begin the programme in July, you’ll spend the first three weeks in training, on-boarding and in lectures. In two weeks you will complete two modules. Every six months after that, at Christmas and in July, you will complete two more modules during a two week block release in Dublin. There’s also a study day on the Monday before the lectures, so don’t worry, there’s plenty of time to read case studies and the like. A word to the wise though, make sure you do the readings, it doesn’t go down well if you don’t.

You’re generally given one assignment for each module, though there may be more than one, depending on the lecturer. Some assignments are grouped and others are individual. Although they’re all challenging, there’s no end to the support you’re given to complete them. You’re also given a lot of time to submit each assignment, three or four months each time. I know this sounds like a lot and a bit of a pain but it’ll be completely worth it when you have a Master’s from one of Ireland’s most prestigious universities, and you can skip away without a student (or parent) loan.

The other great thing about this Master’s is that you don’t have to complete a thesis. So don’t worry about having to work away in the library, trying to do a few months of research in a few days.

Instead of a thesis, everyone will work on a professional impact project. For the current cohort, we’re going to work on the Bord Bia statement of strategy. The current statement of strategy runs until 2021 and, before that date the organisation will have to formulate its new strategy for the next 3 years. For our part in this, we will be divided into groups and will then work on developing what we think the strategy should look like. A report will be completed and we will then present to the Senior Leadership Team and the lecturer for that module. It’s not nerve wracking at all.

The other thing I want to point out to anyone thinking that all the lectures and assignments sound like a pain is that you’ll actually end up looking forward to them. After we all went to work in August, we couldn’t wait to get released at Christmas to see everyone again. Despite only being together for three weeks at the beginning, people got on really well and you make good friends. The other plus is that you can see how other people are getting on in the other offices, share stories about things that happened, and gain perspective and advice about anything getting you down or causing a bit of an issue in work. On an unofficial note, the block release in UCD Smurfit has been likened to Love Island once or twice, so it’s really a case of you will work really hard but there’ll be plenty of time for the craic too.

Essentially, if I leave you with one note, let it be this; Apply for the Bord Bia Graduate Programme; work experience, a master’s qualification and plenty of craic. You really get the best of both worlds.

Email bordbia@ucd.ie to register your interest now. Our next intake is July 2021 with interviews in February. Get more information on the Bord Bia website here.