partnering with the Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE) has been a key strategy for the cotton industry to ensure it has access to, and availability of skilled professionals into the future. PISCE is an industry/university/school partnership designed to stimulate student interest in studying science at university and creating a pathway into real primary industries careers. PISCE brings together Government, RDC's, CRC's and industry investors, and has a national co-ordination centre hosted by the University of Tasmania. Regional Activity Centres (AC's) hosted by universities and industries nationwide implement the PICSE program. The project supports direct engagement with employers so they can experience real professional cotton industry careers in action, and thus supports a stronger employee supply chain.

The PICSE investment has strongly supported workforce development in cotton and has been successful in being able to incorporate aspects of cotton production in able to reach a number of schools (17 in 2014) resulting in 739 student hearing the PICSE/Cotton story. Further the PICSE program has been a strong supporter of the Science and Engineering Investigation Awards and also the annual cotton camp through which 20+ students annually receive much greater immersion into the cotton industry. Many of these students are then linked through to Horizon scholarships which provide further benefit to the industry.