8 July 2015

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Students from Bosworth Academy in Desford, Woodrush High School in Worcestershire, and the David Young Community Academy in Seacroft have received an exclusive insight into careers in food engineering from three of the UK's biggest food brands.

Cargill, Mondeléz International and Warburtons ran a careers workshop in Birmingham for ten A-Level students as part of a partnership with the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and social business, MyKindaCrowd.

The day was focused around a practical engineering challenge for the Year 12 and 13 students with A-Level STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects set by the companies. The students were challenged to produce a solution in teams for a commonplace problem engineers frequently experience on the factory floor, to then present their solution to the rest of the group.

The collaboration brings businesses and young people together to promote careers in food and drink engineering and give young people a first-hand taste of the food and drink industry - the UK's largest manufacturing sector.

The winning group, Alex Hughes (Woodrush High School), Sophie Aminu-Edu (Ursuline High School, Wimbledon), Jai-Vivek Mistry and Callum Murphy (both from Bosworth Academy), will receive a factory tour with the supporting companies, allowing the lessons of the day to be brought to life.

Angela Coleshill, 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 FDF / MyKindaCrowd engineering challenge workshops 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 Bachelors and Masters in Food Engineering degrees at Sheffield Hallam University.

“Students took away an understanding of how they can use their STEM subjects towards an exciting career in food and drink manufacturing. The exclusive event provided an opportunity for the students to network with industry engineers from some of the UK's top food and drink companies.“

William Akerman, Managing Director at MyKindaCrowd, said: “We're glad the manufacturing industry is again proactively supporting the skills agenda. This activity is vital to giving students a real insight into what a career in food and drink manufacturing can be and to support the creation of a strong future talent pipeline.

“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 helped the students to develop work skills and have benefitted from establishing links with talented future recruits that offer fresh ideas and solutions.“

Jessica Smith, Engineering Teacher (second in department) from the David Young Community Academy said: “The MyKindaCrowd programme introduced our students to an area of engineering that is current and thriving, and we found the session one of the best interactive insights into engineering that we have attended. Even though our learners didn't win the challenge they gained invaluable skills that they will use in the work place.“

Note to Editors:

• The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) is the voice of the food and drink manufacturing industry – the UK's largest manufacturing sector
• This event forms part of FDF's Women into STEM pledge to encourage women to pursue science or engineering careers in food and drink, in support of Government's Your Life campaign.
• Food and drink is the UK's largest manufacturing sector employing around 400,000 people in a huge variety of roles. By 2020 the industry anticipates that it will need over 170,000 new recruits to help it meet growing demand and skills shortages in areas such as engineering. The industry is addressing this through its careers campaign Taste Success and through raising food and drink's profile at events.
• Taste Success- A Future in Food is an industry-led campaign to engage with young people, parents, teachers and careers advisors to highlight the wide range of exciting job opportunities available in highly skilled and well-paid professions such as engineering.
• For more information on MEng Food Engineering and BEng Food Engineering courses please visit Sheffield Hallam University's website.
• 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.
• 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.
• The new world-class National Centre of Excellence aims to support industry growth through helping the sector to improve manufacturing capability, provide engineering solutions for energy and waste efficiencies, deliver packaging innovations through leading-edge technology and skills solutions to inspire the next generation of food engineers.
• MyKindaCrowd and Bright Futures work with over 4,500 schools and have societies in over 50 University campuses. Trusted by students and educators alike, with over 32 years' experience working with young people and their influencers. They work with employers to reach the next generation of talent from school leavers to graduates, and recruits them on to work experience, internship, apprenticeship and graduate programmes. They use a mix of face-to-face workshops, online challenges and rich video content.

For More Information, please contact:

Alexandra Crisp Alexandra.Crisp@fdf.org.uk 020 7420 7120

Anna Taylor anna.taylor@fdf.org.uk 020 7420 7118

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