4 October 2013

Food Manufacturers Come to Nottingham to Offer Real Prospects to Budding Young Engineers!

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Food and drink manufacturers will be at the city's biggest careers event – Futures What Next Careers and Opportunities Fair (7-8 October) to promote their industry-backed mechanical engineering degree – the MEng Food Engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University.

Representatives for the course will be on stand 112 promoting the degree which is now open for applications via UCAS and starts in 2014. The MEng Food Engineering degree has been designed by some of the UK's top food and drink brands including the makers of Aero bars, Cadbury's chocolate, Bassetts sweets and Jordan's breakfast cereals to name just a few.

Students on the course gain practical experience through paid industry placements as well as technical skills in mechanical, electrical, civil and chemical engineering – giving them everything they will need to build a career in this innovative global industry.

Benefits for students on the course include:

1. A Food and Drink Federation bursary of £2,500 will be awarded to every student starting the course in September 2014.
2. The chance to work with some of the UK's, and the world's, greatest food and drink brands including: Burton's Biscuit Company, Coca Cola Enterprises, Mars, McCain Foods, Nestlé UK, PepsiCo UK, Pork Farms and Warburtons. For the full list go to www.foodengineer.co.uk
3. The opportunity to apply for jobs exclusively on offer to course graduates (subject to final grades, references and employer recruitment processes).
4. Guaranteed, competitively-paid work placements whilst you study - the equivalent of up to £17,000 pro-rata.
5. Access to the UK's first national Centre of Excellence for Food and Drink Engineering, providing exposure to cutting-edge technology and the latest developments.
6. A fast-track engineering career, graduating at master's level and working towards Chartered Engineer (CEng) status, in the UK's largest manufacturing sector.
7. Expertise in mechanical engineering, process systems design and much more - gaining the industry's most sought-after skills.

Food and drink is the largest manufacturing sector in the UK and is home to some of the world's best-loved brands. It is estimated that the industry needs around 170,300 new recruits by 2020 to help it meet growing demand. Engineering, particularly mechanical engineering, is vital in helping businesses increase manufacturing efficiency and is one of the most sought after skills in the industry.

Find out more about being a food engineer and the MEng Food Engineering course at: www.foodengineer.co.uk

You can also follow us on: Twitter: #FoodEngineering Facebook: www.facebook.com/UKFoodEngineer Tumbler: ukfoodengineer.tumblr.com

This year's Futures What Next Careers and Opportunities Fair will be at Nottingham Racecourse, Colwick, Nottingham, NG2 4BE. To find out more please go to the Sort It Online website.

Dr Abhishek Asthana, Senior Lecturer in Engineering and Maths at Sheffield Hallam University said:

“Highly-skilled mechanical engineers with knowledge of the food and drink industry are in huge demand. The MEng Food Engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University has been designed to create engineers that are ready for roles in the industry the moment they graduate, helping the industry to grow and remain world-class. The fantastic brands that are supporting the course show just how committed companies are to supporting the next generation of engineers.”

Notes to the Editor:

1. Link to Futures What Next Careers and Opportunities Fair
2. Link to the MEng Food Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University course page.
3. The MEng Food Engineering at Sheffield Hallam University has been developed by Graduate Excellence, a partnership between the Food and Drink Federation, the National Skills Academy for Food Drink and Sheffield Hallam University.
4. Companies supporting the MEng Food Engineering include: apetito, Arla Foods, Burton's Biscuit Company, Cargill, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Dalehead Foods, F. Duerr Sons, Finsbury Foods, General Mills, KP Snacks, Maple Leaf Foods, Mars, McCain Foods Ltd, Mondelèz International, Müller Dairy, Nestlè UK, New England Seafood, New Primebake, PepsiCo UK, Pork Farms, Premier Foods, Silver Spoon, AB Worlds and Jordans Ryvita, Simpsons Ready Foods Ltd, Tate and Lyle Sugars, United Biscuits, Warburtons, William Jackson Food Group.
5. The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) is the voice of the food and drink manufacturing industry – the UK's largest manufacturing sector.
6. The National Skills Academy for Food Drink is the food and drink manufacturing industry's skills body. The Academy was created in 2007 to facilitate sector specific training provision to drive up sector productivity and competitiveness in line with employer needs. Training organisations that become part of the Academy undergo rigorous quality checks and include both publicly and privately funded learning centres. Each delivers some aspect of skills development for the food and drink manufacturing industry as a whole, and/or specialist skills for one of its various sub-sectors.
7. Sheffield Hallam University is one of the UK's largest universities with more than 36,000 students, 27,000 of which are undergraduates. The University has the fourth highest number of postgraduate taught students in the UK and runs approximately 580 different courses. The University is England's largest provider of courses that involve work placements (such as a year in industry) and 91 per cent of the University's graduates are in work or further study six months after graduation.
8. Graduate Excellence has received co-investment from the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) through the Employer Investment Fund.

More information

Contact Rebecca Wilhelm, Communications Division, at: rebecca.wilhelm@fdf.org.uk, or 020 7420 7140.

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