Discover why future talent is vital to a resilient food system and get involved in Feeding Britain’s Future thunderclap this week.
When the food and consumer goods industry talks about resilience, the discussion often begins with supply chains: how businesses can anticipate disruption, secure critical inputs and keep products moving. It also encompasses climate change, economic volatility and the long-term security of the UK food system. All of these matter. But there is another essential part of resilience that can be easier to overlook: people.
A resilient food system needs the right skills and capabilities at every stage, from production and manufacturing to logistics, retail, digital, data and sustainability. Businesses need people who can:
Respond to change.
Adopt new technologies.
Find practical solutions to increasingly complex challenges.
Building that capability cannot begin only when a vacancy appears. It starts much earlier, by helping young people see the breadth of opportunity our industry offers.
The awareness gap
Food and drink are part of everyone’s daily life, yet many young people have limited visibility of the careers behind it. They may recognise familiar consumer brands without seeing the scientists, engineers, technologists, buyers, economists, nutritionists, whose work makes the system function. If those routes remain invisible, the industry risks missing out on talent at precisely the point when it needs a broader mix of skills and perspectives.
This makes careers awareness more than a recruitment issue. It is a strategic resilience issue. A strong future workforce depends on giving people credible ways to discover the industry, understand where they could fit and build confidence in taking a first step.
Our recent article, From NEET to food careers: turning insight into action, highlights why greater awareness, access and practical support are needed. This is particularly timely as we await the final recommendations from Alan Milburn’s review of young people and work, following an interim report that highlighted the scale and growing complexity of youth disengagement from education and employment.
Why work experience matters
Work experience is one of the clearest ways to turn an unfamiliar sector into something tangible. It gives young people the chance to meet people doing real jobs, understand the skills employers value and experience workplaces that they may not otherwise encounter. A positive placement can challenge assumptions, widen aspirations and make a future career in food and drink easier to imagine.
There is also a clear benefit for businesses. Engaging with young people can strengthen local relationships, give colleagues opportunities to share their expertise and help employers understand what the next generation expects from work. Most importantly, it helps create a wider and better-informed pipeline of potential talent. No single placement will solve the industry’s workforce challenges, but consistent action across many businesses can make a meaningful difference.
Collective action through Feeding Britain’s Future
That is the purpose of IGD’s cross-industry Feeding Britain’s Future movement: to help more young people understand, explore and choose careers in food and drink. This week, businesses across the food system are being encouraged to add their voices through a coordinated LinkedIn ‘thunderclap’, sharing why work experience matters and encouraging others to take part.
The strength of the initiative lies in collective action. One business can offer a valuable experience to a group of young people; an industry acting together can broaden awareness of the sector, demonstrate the variety of careers available and make work experience a more visible part of how we build future capability.
Get involved
Businesses can support the thunderclap and use this moment as a starting point by:
Sharing a LinkedIn post between 28 September and 1 October explaining why work experience matters.
Using the Feeding Britain’s Future toolkit to help create the post.
Considering what insight, access or experience their organisation could offer young people.
Making early engagement part of longer-term workforce planning.
Building a resilient food system is a shared endeavour. By opening doors now, the industry can help more young people see a future for themselves in food and drink and strengthen the skills base on which its own future depends.