Uni Industry placement program success

To provide students with real-life experience, Federation University offers a six-month Industry Placement Program (IPP) where a suitably matched student is placed within an organisational setting that aligns with their chosen area of study or interest.

IPP students work on real-life projects, gain a feel for the organisational environment, and contribute to the organisation’s mission alongside other members of the team. The placement also counts towards a student’s overall academic standing for the semester, and they receive a stipend (allowance) for their work.

Elena Nauta - FFG Smart Specialisation team

For the past six months, the Food & Fibre Gippsland team has been joined by Elena Nauta, a final year Bachelor of Food Science student.

During Elena’s placement with us, she worked primarily on the Sustainable Emerging Commodities opportunity stream within the Gippsland Smart Specialisation Strategy (GS3), focussing on Insects and Seaweed as new industry opportunities for the region.

For someone with a Food Science background and previous organisational management experience within the Pharmacy environment, Elena quickly took a keen interest to these Sustainable Emerging Commodities and their potential as nutrition-rich food or feed sources.

Despite not having previously been exposed to the highly collaborative GS3 way of working, Elena quickly became a very strong contributor to the broader GS3 team (F&FG, The LVA, Destination Gippsland, Gippsland Climate Change Network, Orbost Chamber of Commerce and other stakeholder partners), presenting at numerous events and to online workshops with global reach.

Elena has developed reference material for stakeholders, including the comprehensive “Bug Book”, which drew together relevant information from local and global research into the opportunities presented by insect farming.

Coordinating with F&FG’s LVA partners, Elena planned the Gippsland Seaweed Symposium, which drew together over 50 stakeholders from across the globe, including presentations from organisations specialising in seaweed technologies, bioprocessing and Traditional Owner access and benefit sharing.

The capacity Elena added to the team throughout her placement contributed to the GS3 food and fibre stream being able to begin analysis on a number of different opportunity streams.

Whilst Elena officially completed her placement on the 30th of June, F&FG and the broader GS3 partnership have been so impressed with her work that she is now joining the team as a Graduate Project Officer to continue the Sustainable Emerging Commodities work until at least June 2022.

This appointment acknowledges Elena’s drive, enthusiasm and ability to develop strong partner relationships as a part of the GS3.

For organisations interested in building capacity within our own region, the Federation University Industry Placement Program is highly recommended.

You may just find the next member of your team waiting within the halls of our local university!