Aviagen will team up with the Limestone County Career Technical Center in Athens to offer an introductory study in Poultry Breeding for students of three local high schools. Beginning in the spring of 2022, the 12-week program will give students invaluable insight into the world of poultry production — a well-established and growing sector in Alabama and across the south-eastern U.S.

Aviagen specialists will teach and engage with students. They will lead them through the care and expertise that go into raising quality breeding stock that poultry producers will use to provide families around the world with affordable and sustainable chicken meat.

Students will explore various areas of poultry breeding, including research and development, planning, the egg depot, the hatchery and the feed mill. They will also learn about animal welfare, biosecurity, health monitoring and diagnostics, and other elements that are vital to health, food safety and food security. And, they will be able to work toward developing professional skills, such as interviewing and resume creation.

“It has been said that our future depends on the sustainable work we do today,” said Aviagen’s Global Marketing Director Marla Robinson, who leads the company’s education outreach. “Aviagen is committed to ‘breeding sustainability,’ and we believe that sustaining the industry in our state and worldwide depends on training our youth and preparing them for a successful career in poultry. This course at LCCTC is designed to set students on a journey of lifelong learning in the proper care that leads to growing healthy, robust birds, and give them a glimpse of the breadth of rewarding careers available in poultry.”

An extension of the local high schools, the LCCTC help students make the transition from school to career. The programs feature a variety of authentic hands-on learning programs where students earn industry credentials with a skillset enabling them to be successful in their pursuit of post-secondary endeavors. The center offers 16 career clusters with 40 pathways to 9th through 12th-grade students attending Limestone County Schools and Athens City Schools.

“Aviagen and the LCCTC share a dedication to training and encouraging our youth. They are our future, and it is on us to provide them with a quality education and teach them valuable skills, while instilling in them the confidence and passion to make a difference for our community, our state and our world,” said John Wilson, director, Limestone County Career Technical Center.

About Aviagen

Since 1923, Aviagen has been a preferred global poultry breeding company with a mission to help its customers — the world’s chicken meat producers — supply sustainable, affordable and nutritious protein to their growing communities. Putting into practice its corporate value of “breeding sustainability,” Aviagen implements efficiencies that make commercial chicken production environmentally and socially responsible and economically beneficial to producers, while at the same time promoting bird performance, health and welfare.