Classroom to career: A decade of shaping the next generation of food industry talent

The food and drink industry’s continuing struggles with labour shortages and skills gaps aren’t unique - many industries are in the same boat. But what is quite unique is our industry’s importance to the nation’s infrastructure. It employs 4.2 million people, making up more than one in eight jobs, and in one way or another everyone who works in the food system plays a role in keeping the country nourished. If our industry fails, the country goes hungry.

To complicate matters further, the UK population is not only ageing; it’s growing, too. This means more mouths to feed in an increasingly complex world beset by challenges from a struggling economy, climate change, geo-political tensions, and more.

The need to act is urgent, and it demands industry-wide attention. Only by working together can we create a workforce with the skills and capabilities to face those challenges and adapt to evolutions in tech, products and services.

But we face a battle for the hearts and minds of young talent. In recent research, we found that 61% of young people have a passion for creative and service-led industries, but 19% do not realise they can pursue them in the food and drink industry. That’s nearly a third of potential talent slipping through our fingers. We must do more to raise awareness.

For our part, we have been actively engaging young people for well over a decade. In 2012, as the UK experienced high youth unemployment, we launched ‘Feeding Britain’s Future’ in collaboration with the Department for Work and Pensions. The programme supported young unemployed people in developing their skills and connecting with great careers in our industry. Through this work, over 150 businesses helped over 30,000 young people.

By 2014, youth unemployment had improved but new challenges emerged: insights told us careers support in schools was inconsistent, while research by the Education and Employment Foundation highlighted that young people who didn’t meet with employers at school were five times more likely to be “NEET” – that is, not in employment, education or training.

So, we evolved the programme to work with students in secondary schools, running careers workshops to inspire young people to work in food. Now our school programmes have trained over 130,000 young people and 90% of participants say our workshops helped them feel more prepared for work, while 73% said they would consider a career in food (up from 43% before they attended our workshops).

Ten years later, we launched the Mmmake Your Mark campaign: a cross-industry initiative designed to attract the next generation of talent to our industry by showcasing the careers on offer and educating young people, parents, and educators on why the industry should be a first-choice career destination.

At the end of the month our second annual Mmmake Your Mark campaign draws to a close, which has seen great engagement from businesses across the country. However,  we can and must do better: we need more organisations to help us get the message out about the exciting breadth of career opportunities in food and drink.

Please get involved by showcasing the incredible careers available within your business. If we join forces, we can do more than entice new talent; we can secure a thriving food system for decades to come.