In the FDIN's latest blog, Justine Fosh, Chief Executive of the National Skills Academy for Food & Drink, writes about the importance of continually engaging young minds about careers in food and drink.

“Actually I don’t know what I’d like to be if I didn't get into show business. I’d have to like, figure it out … I’m obsessed with Cheryl Cole at the moment”.

So said 11 year-old Louise during a research survey undertaken for the Institute of Physics which set out to understand the place of science and STEM subjects in the future career aspirations of 10-to-14 year-olds.

The report, backed by the Economic & Social Research Council and Kings College London, was a more considered take on an area which hit a nerve back in 2009. There was much tutting in Middle England and a subsequent media frenzy when The Telegraph reported that the principal career ambition of today’s youth was simply “to be famous”.

The Telegraph revelation was based on a survey promoting a Sky TV programme which listed the top three job aspirations as Sports Star, Pop Star and Actor/Actress and contrasted sharply with the answers given by young people just 25 years before which named Teaching, Banking and Medicine as the Top Three most desired careers – with Scientist at number four.

The more weighty Kings College report, while also highlighted sports and performing arts as career destinations of choice, honed in on some of the reasons why STEM subjects, particularly science, were “uncool” while the 10-to-14 age range was identified as the critical period when career aspirations and study choice perceptions are formed.

The bottom line was that while kids knew STEM subjects were likely to lead to highly paid, important jobs that contributed to society’s well-being – they preferred to dream.

Degree v apprenticeship? 

The aftermath of recession has, however, kicked in huge change – and not just in Cheryl Cole’s surname. What’s the point of university debt if there’s no associated career destination? And what’s the point of an academic route if you can earn and learn and progress into a professional job through a decent apprenticeship?

Latest figures from The Complete University Guide show just 37% of Media and Communications graduates are employed in a graduate job, while 39% are in a non-graduate job and 14% are unemployed.

While available graduate employment opportunities are still recovering (now up 16% on 2015) the comparison with prospects for food scientists, where 49% of graduates are employed in a graduate job and only 9% are still chasing employment, should be a wake-up call for every school student, parent and careers advisor – especially when average student debt is likely to rise beyond £50k on graduating.

Despite contracting in the early years of recession, latest analysis from the National Skills Academy for Food & Drink shows food manufacturing bounced back far quicker than other sectors in terms of employment demand. Academy predictions of demand for 170,00 new staff to replace retiring older workers by 2020 have been revised down to 109,000 by 2022 after recession recovery pulled vacancies forward and job hunters realised the relative security of the industry.

Industry efforts to reach out to younger people making key study and career choices, such as the Academy’s tastycareers.org.ukwebsite, the FDF’s Taste Success campaign, are also breaking through, alongside innovative new recruitment options being offered by individual sector businesses.

Staying top of mind

The challenge now is to keep the ball rolling. Of those 109,000 vacancies in the pipeline into the next decade, almost 50,000 will be in higher level professional, technical and managerial roles suited to graduates. The bulk of the rest, 27,000, will be in front line production operative roles – but even here, technical appreciation of processes in an ever-increasing automated environment will be a must.

Either way, that should be good news for the 729,000 16-to-24 year-olds currently unemployed and all those school, college and university leavers entering the labour market in the next few years.

Our message to them is keep food top of mind. Get on the right course or get the right training and a world of opportunity awaits – and well paid opportunity at that. Those food scientists are picking up an average starting salary of over £20k compared to £17k in media-land (while a whopping £26.5k awaits in engineering!)

Backstage, the Academy is nudging education and training course provision and tuition expertise to align with industry demand by facilitating industry endorsement of qualifying colleges and universities in the same way specialist workforce training providers can now gain recognition as “Industry Approved”.

The move should make it easier for young people to seek out the courses most likely to lead into employment in in-demand job roles. Meanwhile, for those starting Apprenticeships, new ‘Trailblazer’ standards not only give industry employers the confidence that training is robust and appropriate to real needs but will also reassure apprentices that on completion, they have all the skills and knowledge to make an immediate impact and progress along the many career paths the industry offers.

Who’s doing a great job? 

Front of house, the need to bang the drum for food manufacturing remains strong – but we are making progress. Both Nestlé and Diageo feature in 2015’s UK Top 20 most attractive employers announced as part of Ranstead’s annual insight into where people really want to work.

John Lewis heads the pack. Closely followed by BMW and British Airways. Indeed Aerospace and Automotive remain the most aspirational career destinations.

And food? Well sadly it’s still has a long way to go to get onto the dial – even among the less regarded and less attractive sectors like construction and business services beyond retail banking.

I say sadly because the reality is that food is the Great British Success Story. Not only are we now the UK’s largest manufacturing industry but will have more job openings than any other in the years to 2022 – 109,000 vacancies compared to only 47,000 in automotive and just 19,000 in pharmaceuticals.

It’s a £96billion a year industry that’s home to some of the UK’s most famous brands and products made familiar in every TV ad break and on every supermarket shelf. Exports are up 33% over the past five years as the world’s taste for our innovation and quality continues to grow. Wages are growing faster in our sector than many others and there’s never been more opportunity for women to join and get on. An average of 6,000 women a year took up in the sector in each of the past five years so food manufacturing is no longer simply a job for the boys.

We also a smart industry – adding £26.4billion of value to raw ingredients before they exit the factory gate as finished product compared to the £13.6billion achieved in automotive and the £6.4billion by the pharma industry.

So to all the little Louises (and Lukes) out there, our message is simple.

When it comes to career opportunity, food does have the X-Factor.

And while you may never get to be a Cheryl Fernandez-Versini, when it’s your turn to audition for a real career you’re perfectly placed to be our Cherry on top.

FDIN Jobs is the career development portal for The Food & Drink Innovation Network - the UK's community for successful innovation professionals.

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