This summer, young people joined Greencore sites across the UK for work experience in teams from finance and engineering to HR and category, as part of our commitment to Feeding Britain’s Future.
Greencore is proud to support the industry-wide movement led by IGD, the institute for the food and drink industry, to help more young people discover and build careers in food.
This week, we’re joining businesses across the food industry in putting work experience in the spotlight. Our CEO, Dalton Philips, has recorded a short video on why it matters.
Why work experience matters
Food and drink is one of the UK’s biggest and most diverse sectors, with careers in everything from manufacturing and engineering to finance, technology, commercial and people roles. But many young people don’t know what’s available to them, and too few get the chance to find out.
According to IGD, only 58% of Key Stage 4 students do any work experience at all. Yet it can cut a young person’s risk of becoming NEET (not in education, employment or training) by 80%. Nearly a million young people in the UK are currently NEET, while food businesses are working hard to fill key roles. Feeding Britain’s Future aims to close that gap, with the ambition of providing experiences of work in every UK secondary school by 2030.
Our summer placements
This summer, we welcomed young people into sites across the UK and gave them the chance to get involved in real work.
In Spalding, two sixth-form students spent four days with our Commercial team. They worked alongside our Portfolio Category team, carried out research in local supermarkets, travelled to our Leeds office for an insights briefing and joined an internal commercial forum.
At our Meals site in London, Ben and Beril joined the Finance team while Ellie spent time with Engineering. In Cumberland, Tanveer also joined our Engineering team. In Newark, Kim joined the HR team and another student spent time with our Finance Shared Services team.
At our Harrow site, undergraduate Avni Shah spent four weeks with our People team. After an induction covering food safety and health and safety, she toured the factory, met site leaders and worked on live projects including ethical trade (SMETA) audits and colleague wellbeing. She also spent time with our health and safety, occupational health, payroll and reception teams, joined a day of our female mentoring programme in London, and finished her placement learning about our apprenticeships and early careers work.
Dalton Philips, CEO of Greencore, said: “A few days or weeks with a business can open someone’s eyes to opportunities they may never have considered. The young people who joined us this summer weren’t just there to observe. They had the opportunity to contribute, learn and build confidence. The opportunities are already there. We just need to help more young people see them.”
Looking ahead
Dalton will be speaking at IGD’s Future of the UK Food System conference in London on 21 October, where building the workforce of the future is high on the agenda.
About Feeding Britain’s Future
Feeding Britain’s Future brings businesses from across the food system together to equip young people to work and progress in the industry. Through school workshops, modern work experience, careers campaigns and learning programmes, it aims to inspire a generation to make their career in food.
If you’re a food or drink business interested in offering work experience, find out more at feedingbritainsfuture.co.uk.
