Caroline Ratcliffe, marketing executive at Zeelandia, spoke to year 10–13 students to encourage them to look beyond the obvious when considering a career.
“When people think about work in the food industry, they tend to focus on cooking or selling, which are of course crucial – but there are a whole raft of exciting opportunities across all disciplines, and across the whole supply chain, which includes food ingredients,” she said.
One million unemployed
She added that with nearly one million young people unemployed and the food and drink manufacturing sector facing a skills gap it was important to think outside the box to encourage people to consider careers in the industry.
“Food and drink is Britain’s largest manufacturing sector, contributing massively to the national economy,” Ratcliffe claimed. “It needs new generations of talented, motivated people to help keep it at the forefront of innovation; to ensure it keeps on providing great food to feed the population; and to carry on delivering fantastic financial benefits.”
Sacred Heart of Mary’s food technology teacher Joanna Trohear said: “It brought alive something that could otherwise have been quite theoretical, taught the students more about the supply chain and inspired them to think about the wide range of great opportunities there are in the food and drink industry in general – and the bakery ingredients sector in particular.”
Watch our exclusive video with Zeelandia md David Amos to find out why he believes TV programmes have made the bakery sector more appealing to young people.