New scheme to train junior executives
THE Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre is launching a new training initiative this month designed to attract bright graduates to the industry.
The Junior Executive Development Programme will involve10 graduates who have
secured 18-month internships at leading aquaculture companies.
SAIC is funding a series of training days over the 18-month period so the interns organisations, including Marine Harvest
and the Scottish Group - can meet up as a ‘cohort’.
‘SAIC will offer them in-depth training about the whole supply chain, about the interface between companies and regulators, and about how innovation can help,’ said SAIC CEO Heather Jones. ‘The SAIC training will give them the full set of
She said the scheme was partly in response to one of SAIC’s ‘where’s the supply of quality graduates coming out of the Scottish university base? We can’t hire the people we want’.
Jones said the hope was that the programme would create a group of future industry leaders, who many company chiefs do today.
‘Hopefully, they can tell each other what their jobs involve… and get a breadth of understanding about the industry.We’ll see how it goes and if it’s a great success we’ll have a bigger group next year.’
SAIC supports several education initiatives, including its SAIC scholars – MSc students from Scotland or Europe.
there were one or two SAIC scholars who were Scottish, and the rest were from across Europe,’ said Jones.
down the supply chain and thought what can we do with undergraduates in Scotland to get them aware that aquaculture is a great sector, with all sorts of jobs?
‘Then we started doing undergraduate summer internships with SAIC and companies in our con second or third year students doing biology, environmental geography and so on, and showing them what a great industry it is, to encourage them to go on and do the MSc and get a job in the sector.’
SAIC also funds the aquaculture student careers day at Stirling, which this year became an all Scotland event.
‘That day resulted in at least half a dozen of the students at Stirling jobs in the industry. The industry has got est and the best,’ said Jones.