Scholarships to help students work overseas

Posted 8 June 2012

Three students from across Ireland have been awarded scholarships to assist them with work placements overseas. 

Ryan Bigger, from Broughshane, County Antrim; Michael Murphy, from Eglinton, Londonderry; and Graham Corbett, from Gusserane, County Wexford will be jet-setting across the globe for the sandwich year in industry as part of degree courses at Harper Adams University College. 

The three were all successful applicants for Harper Adams Development Trust Chairman’s Discretionary Awards – a bursary to help them get to their country of work. 

Ryan, 19, will be going to New Zealand to complete a year working for Nick Ruddenklau on a 1,000 acres mixed sheep, cattle and arable farm. He said: “This placement will help me to broaden my understanding of international farming systems, particularly as the low input-low output systems of New Zealand have seen an increase in popularity in the UK. This will be an advantage in the final year of my Foundation degree in Agriculture, when it comes to completing my research project.”

Michael, 20, is working toward as BSc Engineering with Marketing and Management and has secured a placement with John Deere in Mannheim, Germany. He said: “I wanted to do my placement with a market leader in the Agricultural Engineering industry to gain the best experience available within the year. To do this I knew I would have to travel abroad and while I knew it would be expensive and far from home, I am keen to apply the knowledge I have gained from my first two years studying at Harper Adams and also gain valuable knowledge that will assist me in my final year at Harper Adams.”

And Graham, also 20 and on the same course as Michael, is heading to Germany and Serbia to work from Spearhead International and Grimme. He said: “This placement is a great opportunity for me as a student to gain a lot of experience in a very interesting sector. Spearhead farms approximately 75,000 hectares across Europe and aims to be the supplier of choice to food processor, manufacturers and retailers across the continent. Grimme are known for their high quality machines and supply Spearhead with a vast majority of their equipment.”

All three students gave thanks to the Development Trust for their scholarships.