July 2014

KP Snacks helps teach school pupils about food industry careers

The aim is to offer Year 12 pupils skills training for when they enter the world of work, as well as providing insight into the opportunities available within the food and grocery industry.

A total of 22 companies, including retailers and food and grocery manufacturers, are working together for the first time to visit a total of 13 schools in the Nottingham area. The companies will run dynamic sessions for Year 9 and Year 12 pupils to teach them vital skills, help them gain a better perspective of the food and grocery industry and think creatively about their futures.

Careers advisers and teachers will also be involved in the sessions so that they are better placed to provide informed advice to pupils about the industry and opportunities available to them.

Recent findings from IGD – the food and grocery research and training charity of which KP Snacks is a member – suggest Britain’s unemployed believe tailored advice should be made available in schools. Such advice would help young people better understand the variety of careers available and what might suit them personally, as well as how to apply for job opportunities.

The ‘School Pilot’ is a new element to this year’s Feeding Britain’s Future campaign, which sees the entire food and grocery industry come together to tackle unemployment by providing free skills training for thousands of young unemployed people. This training includes CV and interview sessions with HR managers as well as workshops to improve soft skills and the chance to see how businesses are run and the range of careers available.

Led by IGD, Feeding Britain’s Future is the first initiative of its kind, giving young people access to farms, factories and stores, and first-hand knowledge of the skills needed for a career in the food industry or elsewhere. Since 2012, more than 200 companies have offered 25,000 training opportunities across the UK as part of the campaign.

Sarah Blackford is part of the KP Snacks Graduate Programme. She will be running the sessions at the schools. Sarah says:
“Feeding Britain’s Future is a great initiative which KP Snacks is proud to be a part of. All our sites made a great effort to support the initiative last year, helping many young unemployed people with lots of useful advice and skills to hopefully help get them into employment. It’s great that this year the initiative is being opened up to even more young people, with companies like ours going into schools, directly engaging with pupils and talking about the opportunities available in our industry.

“Over 70 young unemployed people got a chance to visit KP Snacks sites as part of this initiative last year. The events we ran were highly rated in feedback by the young people who attended. In fact one of the attendees is still working for us full time a year later! We look forward to ramping up our activity this year.”

Joanne Denney-Finch, chief executive, IGD, said:
“Our campaign is all about inspiring young people to consider the food and grocery industry as a career path by enhancing the information available through schools. The new ‘School Pilot’ element of the campaign not only gives companies the opportunity to inspire pupils on the variety of skills and opportunities our industry has to offer, but to also equip the next generation with the skills they need to find work. Nottingham has been selected as this year’s pilot city though we have ambitious plans to roll this out across the country in future. We are so pleased at the support of many of our members, working to make a positive impact on the lives and future of young people in the UK.”

Any young people or companies that would like to take part in Feeding Britain’s Future should visit www.igd.com/feedingbritainsfuture