Confectionery Apprentice Review

Working in the innovation and rennovation team means having a massively varied working day. We are responsible for the management and developement of confectionary recipes, we are also in charge with being the technical lead on any new product projects, and finally we offer technical support to factories when scientific knowledge is needed

I have learned plenty of business skills such as project management, meeting organisation, time management and how to prioritise. These have been key in progressing in my role. I have also learned plenty of practical skills such as lab based tasks including viscosity and specific gravity measurements, and also kitchen based skills such as chocolate tempering and making caramels.

Enjoyment varies from day to day in my role, there are certain things which i enjoy more than others, although this can be expected in every job. I think being an apprentice also means that we often get given jobs that no one else would want to do, which can be frustrating at times. I understand that we need to learn all processes from start to finish, even the less enjoyable ones. But once we have learned them i dont understand why we have to keep doing them for everyone

The structure of my programme is a difficult one to comprehend, because its the first time that it has been run, so the company is developing as it goes forward. i wish sometimes that the structure was set in stone so that i knew what i was going to be doing in a years time, although i do understand why that is not the case. the company needs to design the structure around its needs at that moment in time.

I think the support i receive is decent, i get half a day to do university work per week, and while this is generous i still wish i could have a bit more, especially since moving onto a degree apprenticeship the workload is quite high. I have support in that if i need to go places or do things everything is payed for and backed by the company which i think is very good for my development.

the support i get from the university is actually very good. they understand the siituation the apprentices are in, and give us more time on assignments if we have had a hectic month at work, and things like that. The learning materials are always very interesting and i think they are setting us up with the knowledge we need to excell in any FMCG role

in the first 2.5 years at the NCFM, part of the university of lincoln the foundation degree that i studied for felt quite far away from my day to day job, it was no where near as scientific as i would have liked, and i dint enjoy doing it. now that i have progressed onto the full BSc in food science however this has all changed and i feel like the content is very helpful and is setting me up to perform well in my role in the future

I have found that the people in the team i work in at nestle are fairly unsociable in after work hours. There is rarely any events on, or things like meals, quiz nights etc which i really hoped there would have been. the most we get is a meal at Christmas and thats about it. The other apprentices on the course however are all great and some have become my closest friends

No

I would not reccomend the apprenticeship i am doing to a friend for many reasons. Firstly the wages we receive are no where near high enough, especially when we are expected to move around the country and pay rent and travel etc, as well as live for the rest of the month- it is quite depressing. Another reason is that it is not a very modern business, all of the offices are aged, the work force are fairly unsociable and very set in their ways. If i was to be asked would i reccomend a commercial apprenticeship at nestle i would say yes. This is because the commercial apprentices seem to enjoy themselves more than anyone in the technical teams, they have more fun out of work with their teams, and they recognise their success more which is never done in the technical teams either.

Ensure that you do not want to go to university before you confirm you will be working at nestle instead. Its a big decision and you need to make sure that its the correct thing for you to do. If you are a very social out going person, that may feel slightly different when you join Nestle, as the technical teams are very quiet, subdued and unsocial