The cross-transversal skills were key – Aodhan’s Story
MSc Food Business Management & Technology Graduate
My name is Aodhan Brennan, I am from Laois and I am currently working as a Ruminants Business Manager with Tirlan.
I suppose my path to where I am now has been quite linear. That’s the way I like it – I probably won’t ever stop with education. We’re part-time farmers at home as we’ve a small suckler farm in Laois and I’ve always wanted to know more about the industry. I started my undergrad in 2014 in UCD in Agri Science and since then, my learning has never really stopped. I applied for the graduate programme with Glanbia in 2018 and learned a lot from that. Now I work for Tirlan (formerly Glanbia) as a Ruminant Business manager. I’ve been doing this for the past five years now. I advise farmers on best practice farming techniques and manage the relationship between Tirlan and them.
But I always wanted to do a masters and I saw Covid as an opportunity to go after it. The master’s in food business management with Innopharma Education was very broad and a good insight into the nuts and bolts of the whole sector, which I found interesting and then Springboard funding made that possible.
Education isn’t the be all and end all, but I’ve found it opens a lot of doors, and especially nowadays learning can be so accessible with the likes of Springboard. Obviously, you must blend that knowledge into work life and that’s when you really learn, that’s when education does that full 360.
The specific thing I really gained from the master’s was the practical side of improving my communications and building presentations. I wasn’t especially nervous before, but I just didn’t have much exposure to presenting. The course put me in a position where I had to do a lot of that. The cross-transferable skills from that aspect are really beneficial now. In my line of work, you have to be very personable – so the course also gave me confidence to present in front of a crowd.
Who’s to say what will come next exactly but my masters’ thesis was on the future of dairy production from an environmental standpoint. The environment and its protection will play a key part of farming into the future and the masters allowed me to gain insight into this side of the industry.
