13 November 2014

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Nineteen female students from Winstanley College, Wigan UTC and Cardinal Newman School yesterday visited PepsiCo's Skelmersdale Walkers crisp plant as part of a new partnership with youth skills initiative MyKindaCrowd.

The partnership aims to promote careers in food and drink engineering to young people and give female students a first-hand taste of the food and drink industry - the UK's largest manufacturing sector.

PepsiCo UK & Ireland signed up to work with the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and MyKindaCrowd to deliver an exclusive site visit and workshop for the Year 12 students who are taking A-Level STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects. The day included a site tour showing firsthand how the nation's favourite crisps are made, a Q&A session where students put their questions to the engineering professionals, a networking lunch and a presentation session where it was the students turn to share their ideas with the group.

The students also took part in competitive practical challenges throughout the day, which are designed to test tenacity, ambition, creativity, enthusiasm and teamwork. For example one challenge was to design a better method of 'picking up Snack a Jacks cakes' than the current system PepsiCo already have in place. This included looking at the pros and cons of the current method and working out smart, creative but economical solutions. At the end of the day one lucky student who excelled in these challenges won one week's work experience at PepsiCo. The winner was Fiona Bradshaw from Wigan UTC.

Angela Colesill, Director of Employment & Skills at FDF, said: “The skills agenda is a top priority for our industry and we are proud that our members continue to support careers initiatives such as the MyKindaCrowd engineering visits to ensure a solid succession plan for employment in our sector.

“At the heart of this collaboration is the aim to raise awareness for the industry-backed MEng Food Engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University as well as FDF's Women into STEM pledge as part of the Your Life campaign, which encourages women to pursue science or engineering careers in food and drink.“

From this day students will take away an understanding of how they can use their STEM subjects towards an exciting career in food and drink manufacturing and give students the chance to network with employees at PepsiCo UK & Ireland.

Ian Rigby, Engineering Manager at PepsiCo UK & Ireland said: “PepsiCo is delighted to be partnering with FDF and MyKindaCrowd, and hope this inspiring initiative will provide these female students with more visibility of the STEM careers available to them. Many of the talented, tech-savvy youth do not fully appreciate how transferable their passions are to driving innovation in the food and drink industry. It's our job to communicate the huge array of exciting roles out there that require a STEM education and skills.“

Dr Jen Platt-Skerry, STEM Co-ordinator, Winstanley College said: “I feel it is very important that this type of activity is made available to students of this age range. It is important that they get as much insight as possible before embarking on a career pathway after higher education. It is also very important for girls to realise that this area of profession is totally accessible. I wish more industries offered the same opportunities.“

The MyKindaCrowd programme is an exceptional opportunity for young students to get the inside track of engineering within food and drink and even the chance to 'win a work experience prize' at each of the challenge days. In turn, the FDF member companies will help the students to develop work skills and will benefit by establishing links with talented future recruits that offer fresh ideas and solutions.

Photography available on the FDF's Flickr Site

Notes for editors

1. The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) is the voice of the food and drink manufacturing industry – the UK's largest manufacturing sector.
2. MyKindaCrowd has embarked on a global mission: to connect young people with the world of work and enhance their future employability. Companies set challenges; young people respond with ideas; and get rewarded with work experience.
3. PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. In the UK & Ireland, our core brands are Walkers, Quaker, Tropicana and Pepsi - but the business also includes a wide range of other products, including Snack a Jacks, Sunbites and Copella. We employ over 5,000 people across 13 locations in the UK&I. These locations include the Quaker Oats mill at Cupar in Scotland, a world-leading potato crisp manufacturing plant in Leicester, and the Copella apple juice plant at Boxford in Suffolk, as well as a number of other manufacturing, distribution and administration sites.
4. The MEng Food Engineering course 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 - www.foodengineer.co.uk
5. Your Life Stem pledge - In May 2014, the government set out national ambitions for greater participation in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) especially amongst women. FDF and our members support the new campaign called 'Your Life' by creating our own pledge to attract women into STEM careers in our industry.

About MyKindaCrowd

1. MyKindaCrowd was established in 2011 to transform the way young people connect with the world of work. The social enterprise company works with 4500 schools and over 90% of universities in the UK, providing online industry 'Challenges', physical workshops, work-experiences, and jobs completely free.
2. Companies set real-life online industry challenges, supported by face-to-face workshops attended by company employees. Students show-case their skills and respond to the challenges. Good responses get rewarded with work-experiences.
3. MyKindaCrowd has set up and ran challenges for entrepreneurs, government organisations, charities and some of the UK's leading brands which have led to thousands of industry work experiences for students with companies including BT, Cisco, Lloyds, Accenture, KPMG, Tesco, NCS and many more.
4. It has won the UK's most prestigious Social Enterprise awards for connecting with diverse groups of young people.

For More information, please contact:

FDF Fleur Williamson on 020 7420 7120 pressoffice@fdf.org.uk

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