Results tagged “Graduate recruitment” from Food Job Blog: The inside track on Food Recruitment and Careers

Large numbers of students are transferring to food science from other disciplines.. 'It's a very applied and interdisciplinary science, in which you can use basic science to solve everyday problems related to the food we eat.'

The recent economic downturn may also prompt students to re-evaluate their options and switch to a field with more encouraging job prospects. 'Especially in the last few years we've seen many students transitioning to food science. There are so many jobs that there's actually a shortage of food science graduates!'

Are you a food science graduate? If yes, are you currently employed?

What are your thoughts?

Luckily for the food industry, even in times of a recession, people still need to eat. We may change our diet somewhat, but we will continue to buy food. This is obviously good news for us as the food industry will continue to employ graduates.

The Guardian on Thursday published an interesting article, Graduates who have studied abroad more appealing to businesses, and would be curious to know how relevant food professionals, and graduates of food related courses, feel this is to our industry.

The article tells us that international businesses are increasingly seeking graduates who have a global awareness, particularly those who have the initiative to study overseas as part of their learning. Britain is home to people from many different cultures and nationalities, so should our food industry graduates, even those who plan to take up a career at home, be more culturally aware?

What benefits would the food industry gain if students undertook a period of study, or work experience, abroad? As always, we'd love to hear your views...

It would appear, according to Jay Rayner's recent article in the Guardian, that you can't move in the Aldi car park for Chelsea Tractors whose owners are hooked on discount foods. Seems we can save big money by adopting a "mix and match" approach to our weekly food shop.
If this trend continues and we see a shift of Waitrose aficionados stocking up on budget priced central European brands how does this affect our recruitment clients and candidates and what are the opportunities?

If, as suggested, the discount retailers increase market share it will have a knock on effect on the supply base. At Focus Management we are already working with a range of food manufacturing clients who deal with these emerging retailers and we are starting to see requests for candidates coming through to fill key roles as the sector matures. This applies equally to our Carrus graduate recruitment side as well as our Check On division who specialise in development chefs.

Could it be a credit crunch munch bunch panic move or a permanent trend? I will be watching the sector with interest and would appreciate any views of how our readers see things developing.