In the U.S., our Internship Program gives college students an opportunity to gain practical industry experience and develop extensive leadership skills. This 10-week summer internship challenges approximately 60 participants through hands-on learning experiences and meaningful projects that improve our business and provide education and valuable workplace experience. Interns are placed in either a production or corporate business unit role where they learn from experienced leaders who offer them industry exposure and networking opportunities with senior management. Not only are our internships paid positions, but the program also allows students to receive college credits.

Recent college graduates looking to pursue their passion for building a career in the animal protein industry can apply to our Management Trainee Program in the U.S. This 12-month rotational program is designed for those ready to excel in our technical, cultural, and leader-based work environments. Customizable rotations allow trainees to grow their project management, problem-solving, and collaboration skills in line with their own interests and career aspirations. Each year, we onboard approximately 40 trainees from campuses across the U.S. The orientation curriculum empowers trainees to strive for individual success while contributing to Pilgrim’s operations.

As part of our Hometown Strong initiative, Pilgrim’s U.S. and JBS USA are working to build the largest free college tuition program in rural America: Better Futures. Through this program, our team members and their child dependents have the opportunity to pursue their higher education dreams for associate degrees and trade certificates at community and technical colleges — tuition free. We recognize and believe in the transformative power of higher education and the opportunities that come from education, coursework, and technical skill training. Better Futures removes a major financial barrier to college attendance and stands to become the largest free college tuition program in rural America. JBS USA and Pilgrim’s advisors will also help team members — many from first-generation American families — navigate the application process, which can be a deterrence to people applying to college for the first time. The Better Futures program provides meaningful investments in the futures of our team members, their families, and our communities.

Our Supervisor Development Program is designed to provide every newly hired or promoted Supervisor in our U.S. operations with the tools they need to be successful in leadership roles. These team members are supported by mentors in their facilities and participate in four vital training sessions and one in-person training session at the corporate office, where they are given the opportunity to network and learn from executive and front-line leaders across the company. Over 650 team members participate in this program every year

Our People First program provides specific training to all frontline supervisors in four sessions throughout the year, focusing on leadership techniques and tools that build, maintain, and engage our teams. Program topics include building trust and respect, the cost of turnover, accountability, delegation and prioritization, communication, and information sharing. To empower our team members, we identify and train exceptional team members to become facilitators of the People First Program.

Our Leading People First program offers continuous, annual training for all current superintendents and managers. Program content builds on the foundation of People First concepts. Topics are focused on People Safety, Food Safety, and advanced leadership skills like coaching, motivating, engaging others, and effective communication.

Summit is built for senior leaders and is open to all global JBS leaders who are interested in continued learning and growth. The program is open to all global JBS and Pilgrim’s business units and brings together 35 nominated, high-potential leaders for yearlong education. Summit introduces nominees to business concepts by partnering with executive sponsors and local business leaders to solve real-world problems occurring at local facilities. With exposure to JBS operations in the U.S., Australia, Brazil, Europe, Canada, and Mexico, Summit participants gain business knowledge from every unit of the company.

We also offer full tuition sponsorship in the U.S. for a wide array of coursework through our 10-year partnership with Colorado State University. This partnership includes executive MBA, online MBA, graduate certificate, professional certificate, and online agribusiness degree completion programs.

Ad hoc leadership, skills-based, and business-specific training sessions are offered to team members virtually and in-person and are led by subject matter experts and JBS executive speakers. Workshop content is selected based on trends in employees’ annual evaluation feedback related to developmental opportunities. Team members are encouraged to attend sessions that will help them increase their knowledge and improve tangible skills.

This self-paced online training platform is available to team members to take required training and browse an extensive library of more than 2,000 courses. Offerings range from systems, analytics, business acumen, leadership, and more.

Our Accelerate Future Leaders program supports the development of our future senior leaders at our Pilgrim’s Europe Chicken business by focusing on effectiveness, influence, and awareness to better lead our teams to “Be the Best.”

In order to ensure a pipeline of talent and help succession into key roles, the ‘Futures’ program is a structured training program which leads to making individuals job ready for becoming a Team Leader. The program delivers a level of support that utilizes a blend of engaging and challenging learning methodologies focused on application of new skills and behaviors back in the workplace.

The Leadership Pipeline is a leadership model for selecting and growing leaders at all levels within the business. The Leadership Pipeline Institute (LPI) specializes in helping to build an internal pipeline of qualified leaders, creating empowered, performance-focused organizations. The model shows how each layer of leadership is developed by defining the different skills required as leaders move from one level to the next.

Our graduates gain development by attending management modules to ensure they have the right tools to be a future leader in Pilgrim’s Europe. The modules are delivered as a cohort of graduates to enable team building and shared learnings. Workshops will aim to develop knowledge, skills and behaviors to take their performance to the next level.

The Operational Leadership Trainee Program was created by Pilgrim’s Europe’s Pork business in 2019 to identify internal and external early career talent, such as recent graduates or apprentices, who have the potential to become future operational leaders. It is a 24-month rotational program whereby trainees spend six-month placements at various U.K. facilities working on key operational projects.

Our apprenticeship program supports and develops Pilgrim’s Europe Pork colleagues by combining on- and off-the-job learning to improve knowledge, skills, and behaviors. Currently, colleagues are enrolled in apprenticeships across a wide range of disciplines including finance, project management, HR, food science, and management. Our apprenticeships range from entry-level to MBA degrees.