Ahead of the Milburn Review, we explore how food education and clearer career routes can help build the sector’s future workforce.
Building the food sector’s future workforce means looking beyond the next recruitment round. It means helping young people see the opportunities in food, develop relevant skills and find clear routes from education into employment.
With the Milburn Review expected in November, a recent roundtable hosted by the School of Artisan Food explored gaps between food education and employment. Industry representatives, including the Food and Drink Federation, highlighted concerns about the talent pipeline across the food system, particularly manufacturing.
This article explores those education and future skills challenges without anticipating the review’s findings. Once the review is published, IGD will examine its implications for food businesses and how industry can respond.
A pathway that needs stronger connections
The roundtable raised a concern about continuity: how does an interest in food at school translate into further study and, ultimately, a career? The presentation highlighted a missing food A-level, higher education course closures and falling student numbers in food-related subjects, including food science and nutrition.
These issues matter because the sector needs more than enthusiasm alone. It needs routes that allow that enthusiasm to develop into specialist knowledge and practical capability. Where connections between school, college, university and employment are unclear, businesses risk losing potential talent before recruitment even begins.
Future skills go beyond food knowledge
Participants identified a broad mix of capabilities needed to thrive in the sector: engineering, digital and AI skills, commercial understanding and skills to support sustainability. Alongside these sat technical curiosity and learning agility, the willingness to ask questions, solve problems and keep learning as roles change.
For businesses, this points to a workforce challenge that is about both specialist expertise and adaptability. It also offers a stronger story to tell prospective entrants: a career in food can connect science, technology and commercial decisions with practical challenges such as sustainable production and food security.
Build interest before career choices narrow
A clear message from the discussion was the importance of engaging pupils in Years 7, 8 and 9, before they make subject choices that may shape their later options. The starting point is to create interest in food itself, then help pupils understand the careers behind it.
That means showing the breadth of opportunities across production, manufacturing, retail and hospitality, as well as food science, nutrition and sustainability. Business engagement with schools can make these opportunities tangible, connecting classroom learning with real products, processes and problems.
Make different routes into food visible
Participants also raised concerns that the cost of university could discourage some young people from further study. This reinforces the importance of making vocational routes into food visible and accessible, alongside academic options.
The aim should not be to present one route as a substitute for another. It should be to help young people understand the options available, the skills each develops and how they can progress. Employers and education providers have a shared interest in making those connections clearer.
What food businesses can do now
The discussion suggests three practical priorities for employers:
Show the range of careers. Use school engagement to bring technical, digital, commercial and sustainability roles to life, rather than assuming pupils already know what the sector offers.
Strengthen education partnerships. Share future skills needs with schools, colleges and universities, helping connect learning with the capabilities businesses require.
Explain routes and progression. Make entry requirements, training opportunities and potential next steps clear across academic and vocational pathways.
The wider message is that food education and workforce planning should not be treated as separate conversations. Businesses have an opportunity to help build both the interest and the skills on which their future workforce depends. A clearer connection between the classroom and a career in food is a practical place to start.
How IGD can help
Evidence shows that impactful employer encounters support young people to progress into employment when leaving education. And those young people are more likely to pursue a career in a sector they are aware of. If you want to explore how your business can develop a future talent strategy and drive awareness through school engagement, speak to the IGD's workforce team about joining Feeding Britain’s Future.