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Graduate secures management role after seizing scholarship opportunities

Posted Yesterday

A love of research – coupled with connections forged on an industry placement – has secured a Harper Adams graduate a management role straight out of University.

Thanks to opportunities India Griffin-Jenkins seized during her placement year, she moved straight into a role as Trials Manager at a leading livestock equipment manufacturer after completing her BSc (Hons) Veterinary Bioscience degree earlier this summer.

Growing up near Newmarket in Suffolk, India’s initial grounding was in the equine industry – and she was drawn to Harper Adams through her interest in working with animals. She said: “I first heard of Harper through friends, and I didn’t even visit to be honest - I turned up, fresh on campus on day one and just got stuck in!

“I studied Veterinary Bioscience and loved the fact that the Uni was a campus Uni – I really enjoyed that we could be practical on farm, alongside our tutorials and lectures.

“My lecturers all had a background within industry, and I always found their work fascinating.

“I did a bit of farm experience here at Harper, went on some of the farm sessions, and got onto the Pig Unit. I’m quite a practically minded person anyway, very happy around livestock and animals.

“That’s how, eventually, I found my little niche through the Scholarship programme.”

Realising she didn’t want to pursue a career working with horses, but still keen to have an on-farm role, India found herself drawn to the Pig Industry Scholarship offered by the University's Development Trust.

She said: “I put my Scholarship applications in across two businesses and three scholarship options – and luckily managed to interview for all three!

“I got offered my favourite down with BQP at Stradbroke, which was close to home – so it all fell into place.”

India enjoyed a packed year in the Research and Development trial assistant team, with the company also offering her the chance to see the diversity of the industry.

She added: “I got lots of opportunities to go and experience what was going on – whether that was a fieldsperson type of role or spending time with the vets.

“It gave me a really broad understanding of the industry, and I pushed myself to attend lots of conferences and networking events and get to know people. I started the placement in the summer – and by November I had agreed to meet the person who’s my current boss now.

“Having the chance to go to those networking and conference opportunities was the big thing that pushed me to look around and find something that was my niche, really.”

Quality Equipment GE Baker Ltd had been looking for someone who could help demonstrate the value of their work – and India’s research skills and industry experience made her an ideal candidate.

She added: “They do a lot of new product development – all kinds of feeders – but had no recent data to support those products.

“I was really enjoying the role of trial assistant – not only the stats side of it, but also the flexibility to go on-farm, be practical, collect data and do the full cycle – so the job seemed perfect.

“I was lucky enough for them to hold on for about 18 months for me to graduate and take up the role of Trials Manager as part of their Research and Development branch.”

India started her new role at the end of the summer – and found herself suggesting the company should consider taking on further fresh talent.

She added: “I asked if I could have a placement student with me.

“With the pig industry, it’s hard for biosecurity reasons to get from farm to farm – we have such high health and safety on the farms where we work, and it was very important for us as a company to maintain that.

“The trial work I do is across a variety of different farms and different styles of pig units – so having a placement student with me, working alongside as a trials assistant like I was at BQP, is really useful.

“The opportunity to help someone get into the industry with a Scholarship was a no-brainer – and it allows me to do three to four times the amount of trial work as I could do on my own.

“A placement role made total sense. Quality Equipment is a family-run small business, people have been there for years – everyone is very invested in it, but they also know they need to bring some young, fresh people in. We’re now hoping to continue taking on students each year.”

As an alumna, India returned to Harper Adams this autumn to encourage students to seek out opportunities in the pig industry - such as the one which helped her forge her career.

She helped man the Quality Equipment stall at the University’s Scholarship Fair and also gave a dedicated Pig Industry Scholarship Lecture alongside other key sector figures.

Reflecting on her advice for students, India added: “Don’t take any opportunity for granted on placement. Put in what you want to get out.

“The more I pushed, and the more opportunities I managed to get myself into, the more I got out of it – and I built the confidence to go into the industry in a managerial role, fresh out of university.”