Attracting and retaining skilled people to the diary sector is crucial to maintaining the development of dairy manufacturer’s engineering and other capabilities. This skill gap has been identified as an impediment to the future productivity and competitiveness of the industry.
Gardiner Foundation has taken a proactive approach to overcome this challenge by investing in the Monash University Team Initiative (MITI). This program forms part of Gardiner Foundation’s commitment to strengthen dairy communities, through our People Development portfolio.
The initiative places small multi-disciplinary teams of students with a dairy manufacturer to solve a specific company challenge over a 12 week period, during the university summer break.
MITI offers a unique opportunity for participating industry manufacturers to put forward a specific challenge in commercial confidence. Monash University and the manufacturer decide on a multi-disciplinary team of students at differing stages in their studies, who are embedded into the company and try to find a solution to this real world challenge.
Since it began in 2014, over 266 students have been exposed to the dairy industry through 81 projects with leading companies like the Bega Group, Lactalis Australia, Saputo Dairy Australia and Fonterra. These students have gained invaluable exposure to relevant learning opportunities that relate specifically to their studies while at the same time, acquiring hands-on practical experience.
