Avara scholarship for agricultural engineering student Rachel

Posted 8 May 2018

Second year BEng (Hons) Agricultural Engineering student Rachel Faulkner has been awarded a British Poultry Council (BPC) scholarship with Avara.

The 20 year-old from Nuneaton, Warwickshire, will be developing new technologies and improving current systems at Avara for her placement year.

She said: “Having been brought up on a farm, agriculture has always played a huge part in my life.

“I was intrigued by the continual changes that my father would make on the farm; leading me to be interested in the innovative area of agriculture.

“Despite the fact that my home farm is purely arable, I always made every effort to widen my knowledge of the whole industry, for example, helping neighbouring farms with their laying hens by collecting eggs and delivering them to the community.

“As well as this, I’ve been employed annually by a local farmer, with a small turkey business; plucking and dressing turkeys for Christmas.

“I chose to study agricultural engineering because I’ve always wanted to work within the agricultural sector but my aspiration is to drive change within the industry.

“Studying engineering in such a versatile industry, such as agriculture, was a very exciting and interesting prospect for me. I believe that my course will enable me to have the opportunity to shape the future of food production.

“This placement opportunity will provide me with a great start to what I see as the optimum career path for me. I already know that I’m interested in manufacturing and supply chains, and being able to gain experience of this in the poultry sector is an amazing opportunity.

“With consumers starting to recognise that poultry meat is not only affordable, but a low fat option, the poultry sector is a growing one. This placement is the perfect opportunity for me to be part of this revolution to pursue a career in the industry, which is what I hope to do.

“The generous contribution that accompanied the scholarship will help to further enhance my learning in ways that my degree alone may not be able to. The scholarship will cover the cost of materials and valuable time that I’d otherwise use working outside of my degree course.

“I’d like to thank Avara for giving me the opportunity to get involved in an industry which my degree alone does not prepare me for.”