As a Brisbane-based organic beef exporter business, sourcing cattle from the pure heart of Australia, we’re excited about an opportunity to access Brisbane’s tertiary student talent pool and leverage their knowledge, cultural understanding and language skills to grow our business, by hosting an intern.
Participating students are given an exclusive opportunity to gain four weeks of degree related, paid work experience with local businesses, like OBE Organic.
Host businesses may be from a range of sectors including, but not limited to, aviation, digital and technology, education and training, health and aged care, media, professional services, tourism and hospitality, and trade and investment development. Students are selected from a variety of education disciplines and matched with the most relevant employer to suit their skillset.
In December 2021 OBE Organic completed an expression of interest to host a student and in February 2022 we completed interviews with a number of candidates. Following consideration of the candidate’s presentations, we selected Megan Nguyen, a student from Vietnam who is based in Brisbane completing a Bachelor of Business Majoring in International Business and Marketing at QUT.
Megan’s perspective as a Vietnamese consumer was important in our consideration of candidates. Vietnam is becoming an increasingly important export market for OBE Organic and we now sell chilled organic beef into customers in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi.
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From Megan’s perspective, studying a Bachelor of Business far from home, during a global pandemic has been challenging. She felt that the first step to becoming a successful businesswoman, was to gain insight and knowledge in the corporate world. Wondering whether she would be able to find an internship added to her stressors.
During her search for internship positions, she stumbled across the International Internship Program 2022 on her university’s job page. The International Internship Program is run by the Brisbane City Council and is an opportunity for participating students to gain four weeks of paid work experience within their degree. This program aims to provide, create and expand opportunity for Brisbane’s talented students and businesses through Council subsidising 50% of the wage cost for the business. This program is open to both international and domestic students who have an ethnic background, however, due to the pandemic, the majority of this year’s successful interns where domestic.
Despite feeling doubtful and anxious, about a week after the interview, Megan received a call informing her that she was one out of the seven successful interns. She was filled with hope and gratitude.
About a week before the internship program started, the Brisbane City Council organised two days of mandatory corporate & workplace health and safety training for the interns. After the training was complete, the seven successful interns were greeted at a 2022 International Internship Program Welcome Reception in which they were given the opportunity to mingle and network with not only their host businesses but also leaders/businesspeople from their ethnic backgrounds, including representatives from Sister Cities.
Brisbane City Council works closely with local and international agencies and organisations to leverage their Sister City relationships to maximise the best possible business outcomes. By working strategically with all levels of government, business and other industry bodies in Brisbane and around the world, they negotiate real economic outcomes for Brisbane residents and businesses.
Megan’s diligent work ethic and desire for self-improvement are values that have allowed her to successfully perform and deliver in all areas of her life. She is immensely grateful and appreciative to OBE Organic for giving her this learning opportunity. One of OBE Organic’s themes are to “Think Big” and be a part of a larger community of purpose that exists to create a better world. OBE Organic has been successful in fulfilling this goal, not only through their company practices but also through participating in this program they are giving learning opportunities to Brisbane’s brightest.
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Vietnam and Australia share an ambition to boost bilateral trade and investment to support both countries’ sustainable, inclusive economic growth. The Australia – Vietnam Enhanced Economic Engagement Strategy was launched in December 2021. It describes how Vietnam is a market of almost 100 million consumers with a rapidly growing middle class and an increasing appetite for premium food and beverages. In 2020, Vietnam was the second largest market in ASEAN for Australia’s rural exports, valued at A$1.81 billion. In 2020 Australia exported A$119M in beef to Vietnam.
We are pleased that the Strategy includes a focus on Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries with a clear action item stating that our countries will ‘Work together to expedite bilateral market access negotiations, enhance intergovernmental collaboration, and forge stronger commercial ties’.
We support all the proposed key initiatives, including
- Australia and Vietnam to undertake bilateral farmer delegations between Vietnam and Australia to share technical knowledge in key sectors such as dairy, red meat and cattle.
- Australia to continue to support the social and economic empowerment of Vietnamese women farmers in agricultural value chains, through the Aus4Equality investment.
On January 12th 2022, Ms. Dalene Wray, our Managing Director, presented to a group of over 100 participants from the Vietnamese organic farming community.
“Even if you are a small business of one person or two people or three people, you can become an exporter and we are hoping to show you the way,” said Ms. Dalene Wray, delivering the main message throughout the workshop.
Click here to learn more about Dalene’s presentation.
