Shropshire Farming Talk: The start of an apprenticeship journey

These include Pilgrim’s Europe, who provide fresh, locally-sourced poultry, beef, pork and vegetarian products.

This was where Kerry Roberts started work in June 2022 – before beginning her apprenticeship journey that November.

When she joined Pilgrim’s, Kerry had owned a butcher’s shop for 10 years. Its lease came up for renewal, so she had to decide whether to continue in the business or if it was time for a change.

She didn’t want to be only known as “Kerry from the butchers”, so applied for a job as quality lead with Pilgrims, which she saw as a great opportunity. She had always had an interest in food quality and safety. This was the perfect career option for her.

Soon after she started her new role, she was offered the opportunity to join the apprenticeship scheme.

She had not been in formal education since finishing her GCSE’s in 2010 but secured a place on the apprenticeship as a mature student.

Our Degree Apprenticeship is delivered in block teaching sessions, and time is available during these weeks for apprentices to access academic support.

This is also available online outside of the teaching weeks – and Kerry has used it to help develop her academic skills.

The Degree Apprenticeship includes a series of work-based projects, where apprentices are required to apply learning to a real-work situation.

Kerry chose to look at a particular issue with a production line for sweetcure bacon. The Pilgrim site in Bodmin produces bacon for different supermarkets and brands, with each having a different process line within the factory. This particular line was a different design to others – and was creating losses in product.

There were also potential issues with food safety. The line’s design caused the product to stick together, meaning there was not an even distribution of product for chilling.

Kerry conducted trials on the line, applying learning from the degree element of her apprenticeship to build her analysis and report. This was submitted as her assignment for the degree – and also presented to her employers.

Using root cause analysis techniques, Kerry put forward a proposal to purchase new equipment. She demonstrated the cost of losses exceeded the investment in new equipment. Within 24 weeks, a new line would pay for itself.

Kerry has been supported by Pilgrim through her apprenticeship journey. Her line manager has allocated her one day a week for off-the-job training. They look at modules Kerry is studying at Harper, and where needed, Kerry has also been put forward for additional training courses.

She has also been given the chance to visit a cheese factory to understand different processes and quality checks for other food products.

Since starting her Degree Apprenticeship, Kerry has been praised by her employers for her ‘significant progress’, achieved a distinction for her project, and is looking forward to starting her third year. Her story shows how academic learning can be applied and make real-world businesses savings.

If you would like to find out more about how the Food Industry Technical Professional Degree Apprenticeship can help your business, or are interested in applying to the course this September, contact: apprenticeships@harper-adams.ac.uk

by Carol Rogers, Apprenticeship Manager at Harper Adams University