Cows Create Careers together with MaxCare recently offered schools and students across Australia an exciting opportunity to enter two competitions, and now the winners have been announced.
Their task was to produce an advert or a 60-second commercial promoting the Australian dairy industry and highlighting why the best and brightest students should pursue a career in the dairy industry.
Drouin Secondary College in Victoria won the 60-second commercial, while Galen Catholic College in Victoria won the advertising competition.
Both schools were awarded a $1000 prize.
"Drouin Secondary College did an excellent job in their commercial highlighting all the different careers available within the dairy industry," MaxCare business manager Tom Newton said.
"It's true what the students said - the dairy industry is legenDAIRY!"
To decide the winner, MaxCare opened the voting process to the public through the MaxCare Facebook page and website and received just over 1000 votes for both competitions combined.
"It's fantastic to see the support for this initiative and it is a great advertisement for our industry," Mr Newton said.
"The video certainly brought a smile to our faces and many communities throughout the nation."
The Cows Create Careers program helps to provide practical, insightful dairy industry education and demonstrates the career opportunities and education pathways for secondary school students across Australia.
The program was started by the Strzelecki Lions Club in Gippsland, Victoria in 2004 and has now grown into a national program.
This year, 234 schools across Australia with 12,870 students completed the program.
"We think the Cow's Create Careers program is fantastic," Mr Newton said.
"It shines a light on our great industry and the opportunities that exist and shows kids a clear pathway into how they can have a career in the dairy industry."
The program involves each school hosting two dairy calves loaned by local farmers, which they must raise for up to six weeks.
MaxCare supplies the calf milk replacer which the school students feed to the calves over the six-week period.
Cows Create Careers program manager, Deanne Kennedy said bringing calves into schools ensured students had fun learning about the different skills required in the dairy industry.
"It's important to introduce this program into schools while the students are thinking about what they would like to do," Ms Kennedy said.
"It broadens their minds to the possibilities out there.
"The program is also a great opportunity for dairy farmers and industry advocates who have vision and dairy industry knowledge to share this with students and pass on valuable experience to the younger generation."
