Careers in Food?

[BaconAndAvocado]

DD is currently in Year 10 but, in a year’s time, will have to consider A level choices.

She loves cooking and is doing Food Tech GCSE.

Looking ahead, what career choices and university courses are there around this subject?
Doesn’t have to be pure cheffing (not a word, but you get what I mean?!) as I would imagine this would involve her going to a very expensive cookery school?

Do universities offer cookery courses?

Nottingham Trent Artisan Food Production FdSc (from which you can top up to a BSc by doing a third year need 64 UCAS points from any qualifications www.ntu.ac.uk/course/animal-rural-and-environmental-sciences/ug/fdsc-artisan-food-production

Whereas Nottingham University want ABB including one science subject (chemistry, biology, maths or physics) and one science-related subject such as applied science, food technology, economics, geography, statistics and psychology, and GCSE mathematics at grade 5 or above and english at grade 4 or above.

www.nottingham.ac.uk/ugstudy/course/Food-Science-BSc#requirements

follow the links for each uni

eg Nottingham

including at least one science subject from Chemistry, Biology, Maths and Physics, plus a second science subject or science-related subject such as Applied Science, Food Technology, Economics, Geography, Statistics or Psychology.Citizenship Studies, Critical Thinking, General Studies and Leisure Studies are not accepted.

Harper Adams, which is a bit of a specialist rural university:

•	Offers tend to be in the region of 88 - 104 UCAS points
•	Students should typically be studying 3 subjects at A2 level to be considered
•	No more than 2 arts-based subjects out of 3 A levels
•	Science A Level is not required
•	4 GCSEs at grade C/4 or above, including English Language, Maths and a Science
•	Food Technology at GCSE and/or A Level preferred (but not mandatory)
•	BTEC level 2 in Science at grade M will be accepted as an alternative to GCSE Science at grade C/4
•	Applicants can expect to receive offers including specific grades in specific subjects (for example, a B or C at A level, or an M or D for BTEC modules)
•	Key Skills (and other level 2 variants) and First Certificates/Diplomas are not accepted in place of GCSE passes
•	General Studies and Critical Thinking are encouraged but not included in grades required
•	Applicants are encouraged to gain relevant work experience
•	Interviews will take place on an ad-hoc basis should the Course Manager wish to discuss any aspect of your application and for all potentially suitable applicants who require visa sponsorship.
&bull;	Overseas applicants please check our <a class="break-all" href="http://www.harper-adams.ac.uk/university-life/international/english-language.cfm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">English Language Requirements</a>

www.harper-adams.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/201216/2023/food-science-and-innovation#entry-requirements

As previously mentioned apprenticeships are also available (and highly valued I understand) but very competitive, and hard work as they work full time, but go to University for three or four intensive block weeks, with assignments etc due in between.

Cheffing is definitely a word! The industry is crying out for chefs and lots of companies now offer degree-apprenticeships. So she could earn and study at the same time and avoid piles of student debt.

Does she have a part-time job? That's how people generally get started and then work their way up (even with a degree you get more respect and can better run your brigade if you've done all the roles)

Human Nutrition is a 3 year university degree. It doesn’t qualify you to work in the NHS though ( although some freelance nutritionists do find work eg with GP practices, for example in health education). A degree in Dietetics generally takes 1 year longer and involves hospital training, after which you qualify to work in the NHS.

A degree in Dietetics would qualify her as a Dietician. If it's an approved course by the BDA this allows you to work in the NHS as a Dietician (which is different from a Nutritionist).

Some courses still have NHS grants associated with them.

This site lists all the courses in the UK which are accreditated by the BDA and are the only qualifications which allow you to work as a Dietician www.bda.uk.com/about-dietetics/how-become-a-dietitian/where-to-study-dietetics.html

Generally at least one science Alevel is required with around 100-112 UCAS points.

I studied Food Science which has led to me going into new food product development.

It's a really interesting job and I love what I do. It's not just cooking, it's applying science and knowledge of ingredients to develop different products. Many products I've developed have launched over the years and it's amazing to see them in shops. You also get to paid to eat food all day!

Food Science doesn't just lead you to product development. I have friends who work in quality assurance, process development, food marketing and more.

It is also a field which is abundant with jobs- we're always going to need to eat food.

When recruiting for new employees we tend to favour graduates from Reading, Nottingham and Leeds but have also had great recruits from Surrey and Sheffield Halam. So any of these I would personally recommend.

OP, there is currently a national shortage of food technology teachers, so that is another potential career option for your daughter.

Obviously your daughter has only just started there is very little related to cooking in food tech gcse. Not the syllabus my daughter is doing anyway. It's more nutrition based. She is y11 and has cooked 1 maybe 2 things. It's more stuff like analysing and comparing properties of different foods.

The gcse practical is to cook a 3 course seasonal meal but it actually only gives a few marks. You can get most of them in the prep in looking at what's seasonal, planning the meal etc. I think this has caused a number of her class to come unstuck as they thought it was an easy option.

Foodmatters.co.uk is the site for Food Matters Live (a free yearly food expo at Excel Centre). They do a great newsletter which has trends and careers and various industry content- not just for chefs. Might be worth them signing up.

Food science would be really interesting and open up a lot of doors that aren't 'cheffing' exactly. I've worked in hospitality and kitchens for years, and I've also worked in a food factory as part of the development team, and the factory was far far more enjoyable.

There's all sorts in that area. There's product concept development (basically cheffing but in a really creative experimental way) there's selling that concept to a customer, project management for launching a product, then there's the development (translating the concept from the chef into something the factory can make) then there's the technical side of it (making sure it's a safe product - lots of microbiology and theory and testing of processes) there's ongoing tweaking (knowing what to do if you run into problems, figuring out to tweak the pH or protein level in the flour or whatever to solve a problem that arises), there's a whole raft of technical stuff that needs doing, monitoring and designing processes and record keeping and developing packaging and creating specifications and 1001 other things that all need to happen to keep everything from falling apart. The great thing is they all feed into each other so if you get fed up you can move sideways into a related but different role and have a bit of a refresh and get more skills.

This website is good for food manufacture recruitment - it'll give an idea of the range of roles and salaries that are out there jobs.foodmanufacture.co.uk/