We’re ‘Feeding Britain’s Future’

Being a student can be a strange time, especially as our young people, and new potential talent, start to decide where they see their future lying. IGD, the education and training charity for the food and grocery industry, has been helping students across the country learn more about the different vocations within this brilliant environment through its ‘Feeding Britain’s Future’ programme and we’re proud to be taking part.

Bringing the industry together to inspire the next generation is the programme’s mantra, a cause I feel we can all get behind. So how does it work? To help educate Year 9 and Year 12 students, members of the food and grocery profession return to school to take part in workshops, sharing with the students their career path, how they have got where they are and most importantly, how they approached work at a young age. It’s a wonderful scheme with tangible results.

The students are keen to learn from your advice with a clear aptitude for taking on imparted knowledge. It is this appetite shown by the children which keeps me returning and why I will keep trying to inspire the next generation.

As a people powered business, we’re passionate about encouraging the next generation of talent into our industry. We employ 60,000 people in the UK and believe they’re not just at the heart of our business – they are our business and that’s why we’re working to get other Compass colleagues to take part in Feeding Britain’s Future. We started visiting schools as part of this programme last year and have continued the partnership with IGD in 2017. We even had a couple of our graduates return to school to relay their experiences - as young people that are just starting out and who can give a different point of view.  

The numbers behind IGD’s Feeding Britain’s Future programme paint a great story. Since the workshops in schools began in 2015, 15,000 students have benefitted from industry professional’s workshops. Out of this vast number, 91% of students stated they are more prepared for work, which is exactly the result we need… I’m looking forward to seeing some of these bright young stars in the future!

If you’d like to find out more about Feeding Britain’s Future, please click here.