£1,500 to be won in food competition

The first prize is £1,000, but the likelihood is that the long-term gains for anyone entering the Transition Year Project on Food Engineering competition will be much more far-reaching. The competition, which is open to both Transition Year students in the Republic and GCSE students in Northern Ireland, is the result of a collaboration between all the university food engineering programmes in Ireland and the Institution of Engineers of Ireland.

To compete students must submit 2,000- to 4,000-word reports on food engineering related topics. These could include, for example, packaging, food safety, fish farming, convenience foods or the environmental impact of food processing systems. Second and third prizes are £300 and £200.

Food engineering is an area that is often overlooked by students making career choices and deciding on college options, says Dr Shane Ward, who lectures in UCD's department of agriculture and food engineering. "The competition is aimed specifically at Transition Year students because it is at this time that they are making up their minds about careers," he explains.

The food industry is an area of enormous growth and offers tremendous job opportunities. "It's essential that we have top quality food engineers to sustain that development. "The food industry is becoming increasingly sophisticated - you only have to look in the supermarket at the constant stream of new food products on offer. The food engineer plays a key role in backing up the technology that is required to move the industry forward. As yet we don't have a skills shortage in the area, but the industry is growing rapidly and it's essential that that thrust is maintained."

Ward believes that many students are losing out on rewarding careers because they know so little about food engineering. "When they think about engineering they tend to think about mechanical or electronic engineering, they don't realise that food engineering is another branch of engineering," he says.

Closing date for the competition is March 27th, 1998, but you do need to register immmediately. For more information contact the Institution of Engineers of Ireland, 22 Clyde Rd, Dublin 4. Phone - (01) 668 4341. Fax - (01) 668 5508.