FSAI Recruitment campaign

In late August, the position of CEO of the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) was advertised, but the position hasn’t yet been filled. An FSAI spokesperson has said there is nothing to report “that we know of yet”, because filling the vacancy is being handled through the FSAI board and an external consultant.

A large number of other vacancies with the FSAI have also recently been announced. Tuesday was the deadline for applying for the positions of IT manager, senior technical executive chemical safety, senior technical executive environmental health, senior technical executive (IT), technical executive data collection and analysis, technical executive environmental health, technical executive (public health nutrition) and training executive.

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However, there are still two veterinary public health officer positions available and the deadline for applying for these is 24 November. The successful candidates will support the chief specialist, veterinary public health in fulfilling the FSAI’s mission in relation to veterinary public health and act as liaison between the FSAI and the veterinary public health inspectorate of the Department of Agriculture and the local authorities.

Those interested in applying must have a veterinary qualification and must be registered with, or be eligible for registration, the Register of Veterinary Practitioners for Ireland (maintained by the Veterinary Council of Ireland), as well as have minimum four years of relevant work experience in the area of veterinary public health.

Most of these newly available positions have “been in the pipeline forever” (although two are new), according to an FSAI spokesperson, but are only being filled now because there has been a significant head reduction in the FSAI since the public sector recruitment embargo was introduced in 2009. Anyone who left the FSAI, even for other jobs, was not replaced.

The FSAI has been looking for permission to fill these vacancies and while permission was received from the Department of Health a while ago, it took much longer to get the official go-ahead from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

Jameson seeking graduates

Jameson officially launched the recruitment campaign for its 2015 graduate programme last Thursday and it’s trawling the graduate market for candidates with degrees in marketing, languages, science and engineering.

Jameson offers two different graduate programmes. The Jameson International Brand Ambassador Programme has 15 vacancies and is looking for business and marketing graduates with languages, while there are two vacancies on the Jameson Graduate Distiller Programme, which seeks graduates from a science, energy and sustainability or engineering background.

One graduate distiller will be placed at the newly-expanded distillery in Middleton, Co Cork, while the other will be placed at the bottling and logistics site in Dublin. As part of the graduate distiller role, graduates can apply their skills through projects focusing on process improvement, efficiencies and quality control.

Language skills are a top priority for Jameson because graduates are placed on international rotations all over the world, in places ranging from Manchester to Mumbai, Korea to Kazakhstan and Belgium to Brazil, and Jameson wants to recruit candidates that would enjoy travelling to and immersing themselves in the local culture.

Graduates who can speak German, French, Spanish or Portuguese are particulary welcome, while Mandarin and Russian are also considered very useful as these are linked to emerging markets.

Graduates looking to apply for either of Jameson’s graduates programmes should visit www.thevital ingredient.ie. Applications for the Jameson Graduate Distiller Programme close on Friday, 31 October 2014, and for the Jameson International Brand Ambassador programme on Wednesday, 14 January 2015.