Over the work experience week, Myself (Jakub), Adam Dalby and Zahra Saley all attended the Harper Adams University Summer School for three days. The point of this event was to experience Uni life and meet some of the business insiders inside the vast food industry. Different branches included meat production, agriculture, food design, public health and more.

On the first day, we got acquainted with the roughly 25 other students and met the staff organising the event. A true stand out was Alastair who was not only an absolute lad but a senior lecturer in Retail Marketing and Management. He ran the summer school and provided us with a rounded set of activities to fully comprehend university life and the UK food industry.

We had a number of university style lectures, a stand out being one about public health and the vast number of factors that contribute to undernourishment and improper diet even in a very economically developed country like the UK.

Other workshops included sausage production with Martin (legend), a sensory evaluation test, professional food photography and new product development. These provided not only a good time but a glimpse at the extremely professional and technologically advanced way of doing things at the university.

We had two trips to outside food manufacturers, Faccenda chicken (Avara foods) and Dairy crest. I didn’t particularly enjoy the chicken processing plant although it was quite educational and impressive in its sheer scale (1.5 million chickens). Dairy Crest was a far more enjoyable affair, where we got to meet the man who developed the Frijj milkshake. We also got to learn about the role of enzymes in the production of cheese and we got to taste test new products.

Overall it was a very educational trip, especially having dinner with industry professionals and talking about opportunities and our potential future in the food industry.

By Jakub – Year 12