Who is it for?

This programme is designed for current final year students and recent graduates looking to pursue an exciting career in international food, drink and agribusiness sector. The next intake will be starting 30th June 2025.

We’re looking to foster the next generation of talent in the Irish food and drink industry. This programme offers invaluable market experience to graduates, which can act as a springboard for a successful career in the food and drink sector. This programme combines on-the-job experiential learning, with a level 9 MSc degree in Global Business Practice.

Check out the below video of one of our current International Graduate students Eimear Hurley who's major learning assignment is in the Global Relationship Management team in Bord Bia's Global Hub office in Dublin. You'll get an insight into the different types of projects you could be assigned to.

Learning Assignment Roles - Where do you fit in?

There are opportunities to be placed in Dublin or in one of Bord Bia’s international offices (language and demand dependent) with previous locations including Madrid, London, Paris, Dusseldorf, Amsterdam, Dubai, Stockholm, Milan, New York, Shanghai, Tokyo, and more. Our Graduate Programme has something for everyone with learning rotations across the different teams in Bord Bia, you could be based in HR, Marketing, Communications, Events, Global Business Development, Origin Green, Insights and more. Details below on different roles in different teams.

International Markets 

• Based in one of the Bord Bia overseas offices 
• Supporting Dairy, Meat, Seafood, Prepared Consumer Foods, and Alcohol client companies through disseminating market insights, in-store visits, lead generation, and delivering reputation building activities such as trade events
• Management of Digital, Social and PR agencies for category events and marketing campaigns focused on the relevant market
• Supporting customer relationship management with retail and foodservice operators across the relevant market
• Coordinating cross-functional projects with teams in Dublin, agencies in the relevant market, and clients/customers
• Manage office administrative tasks such as budgeting and invoicing
• Participation in project management and event logistics of major events
• Researching, writing and editing articles, covering recent market updates and trends

International Markets (Dublin-based)

• Supporting your learning assignment manager on various international projects
• Coordinating support programmes for client companies
• Coordinating trade missions, market access inspection visits, and inward buyer visits
• Editing and writing research documents, reports, newsletters, CEO briefs, and articles
• Research and analyse international data and consumer and food trends producing reports for companies to better inform their decision making

Sectors (Dairy, Meat, Seafood, Prepared Consumer Foods, and Alcohol)

• Support senior sector managers with supports and services for client companies
• Developing marketing collateral for promotional purposes.
• Updating Bord Bia’s Customer Relationship Management tool
• Assisting with budgeting and invoicing
• Compiling Market Reports
• Coordinating Inward Buyer visits, Journalist visits, and Farmer Education Tours
• Organising physical and virtual events/webinars for clients and stakeholders

Talent

• Supporting our Industry Talent Manager with planning and delivery of our four Talent programmes including recruitment initiatives, marketing, onboarding and off boarding
• Organise and attend career fairs on behalf of Bord Bia Talent Academy
• Assist in budget administration such as creating PO and Invoices and monitoring progress
• Develop our Talent Academy Alumni group, providing research and recommendations for activities and assisting in event organising
• Support in marketing campaigns including, dealing with external agencies, creating content, and developing ideas for brand awareness

Marketing

• Assisting in the set up and implementation of various activities for Bord Bia’s marketing campaigns including TV, radio, outdoor advertising, sponsorships, PR, social media, instore activities, and consumer events
• Assist in the development and creation of promotional assets for campaigns
• Develop, manage and evaluate digital activities, including website updates and providing digital assistance
• Respond to general queries and requests for information
• Budgeting management

Communications

• Supporting the Bord Bia communications team on all events including Trade Missions, Ministerial photo calls, Trade Fairs, Awards, and Bord Bia Bloom.
• Assisting with Bord Bia’s social media content – creating content and analysing performance
• Handling media relations – syndicating press releases, tracking media pick up, and responding to media queries
• Monitoring media, i.e. manage relationship with the media monitoring agency, track daily coverage, and develop media reports
• Coordinating staff photography and videography both in Dublin and across markets, sourcing and briefing photographers/ videographers, managing all internal and external requests for images, briefs for events, captioning, and storage

Events

• To provide support to the Marketing Events and Brand Activation team in the delivery of highly engaging activation and events programme
• To ensure the continuity of the trade fair aspect for the EU programmes by working closely with the EU Team & overseas offices
• To work with suppliers as partners in the delivery of project aims, within budget, to a high standard ensuring their optimum performance for best practice/leading edge events and brand activation in a digital age
• To provide effective communication with client companies to ensure an impactful delivery of exhibition stand spaces at international trade fairs
• To assist with overseeing the stand build on-site at international trade fairs & events
• To manage project-based budgeting for marketing events and brand activation projects, to ensure value for money

Digital

• Management of Bord Bia’s social media content for corporate channels – creating content strategy and analysing performance
• Managing multiple Bord Bia websites, working with market specialists worldwide to create effective digital content strategies
• Managing requests for creating and updating webpages, implementing SEO strategies and following UX design principles
• Using various digital tools to analyse website performance, e.g. Google Analytics, Data Studio etc
• Collaborating with different departments to assist with digital marketing campaigns across the organisation
• Assisting different markets with email marketing efforts to ensure email campaigns perform to the best possible standard

Consumer Insights and Trends

• Promotion, organisation and co-ordination of events, workshops and service offerings
• Assist the consumer insights team with client focused qualitative and quantitative research projects. This includes drafting questionnaires, screeners, discussion guides, and co-facilitation of focus groups, transcript analysis, report building and presentation of results
• Support the Brand Development team on a range of different brand building and brand activation projects
• Complete groundwork and trends research for client companies, identifying actionable insights
• Coordinating and managing internal Bord Bia events and queries
• Budget Management

Origin Green - Sustainability Coordinator

• Meet with companies, individually, to explore potential target areas
• Prepare and deliver planning workshops
• Provide ongoing feedback and advice to companies in the plan development process
• Engage with companies to ensure strong plan implementation
• Coordinate the Origin Green support team and the Origin Green independent verifier to ensure delivery of satisfactory plans & targets
• Organise webinars and events on relevant topics that will maintain momentum with members
• Monitor potential changes to Origin Green plan requirements and make recommendations
• Identify and assess potential support tools to streamline the plan development and data management process
• Assist in the upload of plan data to new Origin Green Platform

Origin Green - Quality Assurance

• Supporting sustainability capability building within Bord Bia through planning and delivery of training activities online and in-person
• Coordination of training events including liaising with external knowledge experts and service providers, moderating webinars and delivering training content
• Representing Bord Bia on a national protecting farmland pollinator group, international beef sustainability communications working group, and regenerative agriculture working group
• Conducting periodic internal audits on quality assurance schemes and procedures, as well as completing an internal auditor training certificate. Managing and developing projects, carrying out sustainability data collection, reporting and benchmarking
• Creating e-learning modules and content for the Bord Bia Farm Sustainability Learning Hub

Client Capability

• Support, co-ordinate and manage activities, workshops and programmes that help Bord Bia clients with:
  • Commercial Marketing Strategy: Develop marketing strategies to enter and grow in markets, channels and customers
  • Key Customer Management: Building Bord Bia clients abilities to manage key customers effectively such as through the building and development of negotiation skills and creating compelling customer pitches
  • Think Digital/Digital Marketing: Development of digital marketing strategies and guidance on all aspects of digital marketing
  • Category Management: Providing best practice templates and guidance on how to correctly manage their category in-store
  • Innovation: Raise awareness and understanding with all clients about how to successfully manage product innovation for business growth
• Assisting the team across additional exciting services such as Brand Forum, Food Works, and Superbrands
• Co-ordinating and managing cross-functional projects with teams in Dublin, Bord Bia international offices, consultants, agencies, and clients/customers
• Organisation and co-ordination of internal and external events, workshops, and service offerings
• Consistent updating, refreshing and improving Client Capability CRM activity and Client Capability owned webpages

Human Resources

• Communication on & organisation of Learning & Development Programmes & Training requisitions
• Support in Learning Management Systems administration. Coordinating and management of employee onboarding
• Assisting with the NDA, D&I, and Action Plans
• Delivering Operational HR Support dealing with employee queries
• Assist with budget administration including invoicing and purchase orders

Additional requirements

It is a requirement that the graduates are willing/able to live in an overseas location or in the Dublin-based office.

Check out our recent webinar and get an insight from our current and past participants on their experience on the programme and the career opportunities upon completion of the programme: