2020 AWI Graduate Starts
A young man whose family has been farming in Australia for more than 150 years is the latest to start with AWI in its successful Graduate Training Program.
A young man whose family has been farming in Australia for more than 150 years is the latest to start with AWI in its successful Graduate Training Program.
George Lehmann graduated last year from the University of Sydney where he completed a Bachelor of Food and Agribusiness. He grew up on a mixed farming enterprise, combining wheat and canola cropping with Merino Sheep in Junee, country NSW. His family farmed in South Australia from the 1870s until moving to their current farm in 1913.
The 18-month program starts in March and is based primarily at the AWI office in Sydney, where the graduates gain exposure to many areas of the AWI business from on-farm and off-farm research and development through to marketing.
The graduates are also given the opportunity to gain a global exposure to the wool supply chain through two three-month international rotations.
The program is aimed at graduates from a broad cross section of disciplines who have a background in or connection with the Australian wool industry.
The inaugural program began in March 2018.
The competition for the 2020 program was extremely high and once again, the calibre of candidates that AWI received was outstanding. It was an extremely rigorous process for the graduates to get through to the final stage.
George is over the moon at the opportunity.
“I want to embrace every opportunity presented to me and learn more about the whole supply chain and breadth of the company, as the scope of all their work fascinates me.”
He also is convinced that “wool’s future is extremely bright. In Australia and around the world. The simple fact of the matter is that the world’s population will continue to grow. This is not also simply related to production, but to technology, engineering and genetics”.
George will begin the program spending time with Jane Littlejohn, General Manager Research, and her Sheep Production team over the next three months, before hopping the farm gate to our Processing Innovation and Education Extension Team.
Recruitment for the next AWI Graduate will begin early 2021 for the 2022 AWI Graduate Training Program.
