Ireland’s world class food and drinks brands are known the world over, from our golden butter to our cream liqueur and our satisfying stout.
If the idea of working with well established brands - or bringing a fresh crop to fruition - is to your taste, then Bord Bia’s Talent Academy is your entrée to success.
Bord Bia is the state agency charged with promoting Irish food and drink abroad. It works with everyone from small producers to major manufacturers, providing them with the services they need to drive export growth.
It’s big business. Last year Ireland’s food, drink and horticulture exports topped €16 billion.
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But helping to support Irish food and drinks exports is only part of what Bord Bia does. Through the education programmes of its Talent Academy, it produces seasoned food marketers.
So, what’s on the menu?
Specialist food industry courses available from Bord Bia include its much sought-after International Graduate Programme, aimed at final year students from a broad range of undergraduate degrees who want to develop global food industry expertise.
Lucky participants undertake international placements across Bord Bia’s global office network while at the same time gaining an internationally recognised master’s qualification in Global Business Practice from UCD’s Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School .
It’s a full scholarship programme in which your tuition fees are paid in full, and, in addition, you also receive a generous scholarship bursary for the 24-month programme.
Combining classes with industry placements, you’ll learn how to develop export strategies, build market insights, develop marketing plans and customer value propositions, as well as getting to grips with global supply chain management and business sustainability.
What’s it like?
Cork native Cian O’Gallchoir found out about Bord Bia’s International Graduate Programme at a job fair in his final year studying commerce at UCC. “I had my eye on it ever since. It was the graduate programme I really wanted to apply for and thankfully it worked out,” says Cian.
He joined the two-year programme in June 2023 and is currently based in Bord Bia’s New York office on a learning assignment.
“I really liked the opportunity it offers to go abroad. I was also really interested in the food and drinks industry. In Ireland we have incredible brands so I knew it would be an interesting industry to be in,” he explains.
“But the other huge draw, which makes it unique compared to other graduate programmes, is that you get a fully funded masters as part of it, which is incredible.”
He focuses on the drinks side of Bord Bia’s portfolio and is currently involved in a customer education programme called Spirit of Ireland, ensuring staff in the hospitality industry there understand the history and unique selling points of Irish spirits.
As such he gets to travel all over North America, which he enjoys enormously. “The first one we did was in Chicago and the most recent was Vancouver. Next month we’re going to New Hampshire, then San Francisco, then up to Toronto,” he says.
It’s not all travel. He also spends a lot of his time at his desk, “helping clients to pick the best importer or distributor for their product in this market,” he adds.
On graduation he hopes to work for a global drinks company, or maybe a small Irish drinks brand [NO3] with a thirst for international success.
Whatever he decides, having the Bord Bia Graduate Programme under his belt will help, both because of its prestige and because of the network participants build up, both UCD alumni and real-world industry contacts. It’s “definitely” opening doors already, he says.
What else is on offer?
For those who already have two- or three-years’ workplace experience, Bord Bia’s highly coveted marketing fellowship programme has the ingredients to turbo-charge their career.
It too is a fully-funded master’s qualification – this time in international marketing practice - from UCD’s Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. It combines unique, extensive overseas experience in sales, branding, digital marketing, consumer insights, entrepreneurship and leadership. Here too, participants receive a monthly bursary.
The fellowship will see you work with real world Bord Bia clients, helping their in-market growth.
It’s a 15-month placement within an 18-month programme that could take you to locations such as New York, London, Stockholm, Dubai, Shanghai or Tokyo, to name just a few.
What’s it like?
Dubliner Emma Cahill, an agricultural science graduate from UCD, had worked for a number of years, both in industry and in her own start up, before applying for the Bord Bia Marketing Fellowship.
“I’m pretty sure I saw an ad for it on the back of a bus,” she says.
Having found out more, she was determined to secure a place on it and, as anyone who knows her will probably attest, once she sets her mind to something, it tends to happen.
Seven years ago, she joined food ingredient group Kerry and is now global strategic marketing director of its food protection and preservation division. Based in Chicago, her work is all about helping to reduce food waste, her passion.
Her ambition is to be Kerry’s first female chief executive but what got her in the door was completing the Marketing Fellowship, she reckons.
As part of the programme she was based in Paris, working with four Bord Bia client companies to help grow export sales.
These included Keoghs Crisps, Walsh Whiskey, Green Isle Foods and Dairygold. “You were their person on the ground,” she explains.
It was a hands-on experience that included everything from visiting fish skinning plants to organising whiskey activations.
“There is such a love for Irish food around the world. It is really well recognised and appreciated as a sign of quality, so it was great fun.”
What’s next?
Once they complete the course, Bord Bia works with graduates to ensure their CV fully reflects the range of competencies and skills they build up, explains Emma, who says a standout CV helped her land her first job with Kerry.
The company is a global leader in sustainable nutrition and employs more than 20,000 people worldwide, including around 1,000 with PhDs. “It’s the future of the food industry”, says Emma.
The fact that it has hired so many Bord Bia marketing fellows to date speaks volumes about the calibre of the programme, she adds.
“It’s because the programme is just so competitive. There were only 20 in my class, from around 600 applicants. The reason it is so competitive is because Bord Bia really wants high quality people. And when they get them, they do an awful lot of work with them to set them up for success.”
Apply now to secure your place in Bord Bia’s Talent Academy here