Drawing on the expertise of our Teaching Brewery, Niagara College was recently awarded a Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management training project in Bhutan, South Asia, with the particular goal of supporting female brewers in the country. The project’s collective aim is to support the development of a gender-inclusive, sustainable craft brewing employment sector.
Pictured are some of Ser Bhum Brewery’s products. Photo credit: Lauryn Ishak.
Over the next year, NC will collaborate with Ser Bhum Brewery Private Ltd. to help the company in growing a sustainable business that supports the growth of women in management and operational leadership roles, while assisting the brewery in producing high-quality craft beer for domestic and export markets. The College has a strong history of collaborating with beverage companies on a local and global scale, including a partnership between its Canadian Food and Wine Institute Innovation Centre and Bacardi Limited – the largest privately held spirits company in the world.
This Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management training project is part of a seven-year program funded by the Government of Canada’s Canadian Trade and Investment Facility for Development (CTIF) and is aligned with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy (FIAP). The goal of the program is to support sustainable trade and investment-related policy reforms and economic development initiatives that foster women’s empowerment and inclusivity. Through this initiative, NC will continue to align with and support the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which outlines 17 Sustainable Development Goal (SDG)s. By furthering SDG number four of “Quality Education” that targets SDG number eight of “Decent Work and Economic Growth”, NC is helping create more jobs to support the local economy. This project also has a particular focus on achieving SDG number five of “Gender Equality.”
A portion of this project will explore Niagara’s craft beer industry and the regional economic impact of small businesses within the food and beverage industry. The College looks forward to sharing its best practices of working with government, education and industry partners to support regional economic growth in this sector.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Global Education and Partnerships team have worked with both funders and clients in Bhutan to develop an online delivery of the program. Using a combination of best practices in online learning and digital technologies coupled with NC innovation, the stakeholders have developed an innovative way to deliver the program by bridging Bhutan and Canadian brewing practices.
“Through this one-year project, Niagara College proudly supports women working in food and beverage innovation in emerging economies,” said NC’s Global Education and Partnerships (GEP) director, Justin Williams, PhD. “Many of the challenges this project addresses are global issues and also exist in Canada’s beverage industry. This project presents the opportunity to grow and learn together about the universal goal of achieving gender equality.”
NC leads many global initiatives in gender equality and the advancement of women including recent projects in St. Lucia, Chile, Colombia and Mexico. As recognized experts in the field of food and beverage, the College recently completed a five-year project in Vietnam providing technical training and developing curriculum for a food technology program to Vinh Long Community College (VLCC).
Gender equality and social inclusion in the brewing industry is also a priority for the College at the student-level; currently NC offers scholarship opportunities geared towards increasing female representation in the brewing industry.
The Dr. Wade Davis Brewery Bursary for Women is offered to female students in the Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program and is aimed at advancing women’s equality. The scholarship’s donor, Dr. Wade Davis, shared his motivations for funding the award: “Since ancient times women have been involved in brewing. This award aims to encourage women to prepare for, enter and be successful as well as more visible in the brewing industry. As a student in the Brewmaster program at Niagara College, I experience first-hand the significant impact that women contribute to the overall success of the program.”
The Dominion City Beer Diversity Scholarship is also offered at NC thanks to Dominion City Brewing Co. The annual award is given to a student studying in the College’s Brewmaster and Brewery Operations Management program who is from a diverse background presently underrepresented in the brewing industry, which includes women.
More information about the gender gap rankings by country can be found here.
More information on NC’s Global Education and Partnerships and how to get involved in global education projects, can be found at ncglobal.ca/getinvolved/.
About Bhutan
Bhutan is a unique country for various reasons including its measurement of progress through Gross National Happiness as opposed to the traditional method of Gross Domestic Product. Click here to read Forbes.com‘s article entitled, “Why Bhutan Is Still Out of This World.”
