Premier Foods Invites Students to have a “Taste” of the Action!

A group of students got an exclusive insight into what it’s like to be an engineer working in the food and drink industry – the UK’s largest manufacturing sector.

The University Technical College Sheffield students visited the Worksop factory of Premier Foods yesterday to find out how products such as OXO stock cubes and Bisto gravy are made. The year 13 students were given a tour of the state-of-the-art and high-tech food production facilities and took part in a production engineering exercise which involved an OXO cube and Supernoodle challenge designed to bring engineering to life.

The visit forms part of food and drink manufacturers’ drive to recruit students onto the industry-backed MEng Food Engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University. This masters course has been specially designed to develop the food and drink engineers of the future and is delivered by the recently launched National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering.

The degree course, exclusively delivered by Sheffield Hallam University offers real job prospects for its graduates. Students starting the MEng Food Engineering degree in September 2015 may also be eligible for a Food and Drink Federation bursary of £2,500.

Karl Smith, Factory General Manager, at Premier Foods said:

“There are many exciting career opportunities in the UK food and drink manufacturing industry including, for example; engineers, food scientists and technologists. We’re delighted to welcome these young students to our site and we hope to encourage them to consider the MEng Food Engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University and a future career in the UK food and drink industry.”

Nick Crew, UTC Sheffield Principal, said:

“We are delighted with the support offered by Premier Foods in giving an insight into the production facilities and technical careers within the food and drink industry.  We work closely with employers and part of that involves raising awareness of the range of fantastic careers opportunities available within food engineering.

“UTC Sheffield provides the perfect learning environment to support the technical and employability skills of the future workforce. Students have the chance to go onto apprenticeships or university including the recently launched MEng Food Engineering degree at Sheffield Hallam University.”