PepsiCo praises Sheffield food engineering degree

28-Sep-2014 - Last updated on 30-Sep-2014 at 08:15 GMT

The new food engineering degree is designed to help plug the sector's growing skills gap

Food and beverage giant PepsiCo has joined other leading food and drink firms in praising the UK’s first food engineering degree, which begins today (September 29) at Sheffield Hallam University.

PepsiCo UK and Ireland’s site engineering manager Ian Rigby said the MEng food engineering degree would help to plug the sector’s yawning skills gap. “This course comes after a three-year journey for PepsiCo,” said Rigby, one of the mentors on the programme. “Back then, we were really struggling to recruit high engineering talent to fill some of our roles.

“Our industry needs high-end talent to lead our engineering into the future. Enrolling on this course puts students in the shop window and this degree programme gives them the best chance of success in a competitive industry.

‘Best chance of success’

“I wish I could wind the clock back and do the degree myself.”

Nestlé UK praised the food industry collaboration that had led to the “unique” degree course. The firm’s technical director and chair of the Graduate Excellence Project Richard Martin said: “I am delighted that following fantastic collaboration across many food and drink companies, we welcome our first students onto the MEng in Food Engineering at Sheffield Hallam.”

The four-year Master’s level course has been developed by the food and drink manufacturing sector to create a pool of specialist engineers equipped to meet the needs of the industry.

Starting the course today are 15 students who will be offered the chance to gain the skills necessary to become the engineers and leaders of tomorrow.

Major employers

Meanwhile, representatives from major employers in the food and drink manufacturing industry met the new students at a mentoring event to celebrate the launch of the new degree last Thursday (September 25).

The students met industry leaders and managers from both PepsiCo and Nestlé UK plus: United Biscuits, KP Snacks, Mondelēz International, that will be mentoring them on the course. The firms will also provide industry expertise and work placements.

Mature student Blyth Mkonya, aged 33, from Bradford, hoped the course would provide her lauchpad for a career in food manufacturing. “This course is unique and the involvement from food companies makes it a really good opportunity,” she said.

“I'm so excited and looking forward to it. I've always wanted to be in the food industry.”