Bulletin

Issue: June 2004

People

Taste of 'real-world' business

SPC Ardmona Limited produces delicious canned fruit and other products in Shepparton and Mooroopna - but it also has been giving La Trobe Shepparton campus students a taste of the real business world. Bachelor of Business student, Jessica Hunt 21, majoring in Human Resource Management at La Trobe Shepparton, spent 15 days of her final year industry practicum looking at employer-employee relations at SPC Ardmona Shepparton cannery.

She probed complex relationships between management and 1,500 workers in a company formed by a merger of two long-time rivals, SPC and Ardmona; between unions and management; between workers of two plants still run as separate identities; and between contract and union workers.

Ms Hunt was the first La Trobe Shepparton Bachelor of Business student to do an industry practicum in the sensitive field of employer-employee relations. After her teacher, Dr Apollo Nsubuga-Kyobe, secured her appointment and agreement of management co-operation, Ms Hunt began a series of interviews with management and workers at all levels. Her efforts culminated in a 4,000 word report with a list of 12 recommendations and a presentation to company management.

As well as SPC Ardmona, Kraft Foods Ltd at Strathmerton, near Shepparton, offered students work in its Human Resource area. Dr Nsubuga-Kyobe said industry practica and work experience programs were a useful way to link university teaching with the activity of local industry. •

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