Moira Stalker: Scotland’s food and drink sector is a great place to grow a career

Scotland’s food and drink sector is firmly focused on the future. We are doing world class work in all areas of the industry from developing healthier choices, to ensuring food security, and investing in research and development to maintain our global position. The food and drink industry has something for everyone, with a huge variety of careers on offer.

Moira Stalker, Skills Manager, Food and Drink Federation Scotland

New trends like the rise in plant-based diets, small plates, free from foods and many others constantly affect what consumers purchase. These are leading to new opportunities throughout the industry; including new product development, reformulation, business start-ups, use of robotics, sustainability and digital technology to meet growing demands.

To keep up with these consumer demands the food and drink industry needs to attract the next generation of talented recruits. The good news is that Scotland’s school pupils have many of the key skills our businesses require. The challenge is to 
encourage these young people to consider a career in the food and drink industry.

At FDF Scotland we are working with our partners to make food and drink a Career Destination of Choice through our skills initiative – A Future in Food – funded by the Scottish Government, through 
Scotland Food & Drink.

This initiative was established several years ago. It is founded on a long history of setting up partnerships between schools and food and drink companies to help pupils, teachers and parents understand the skills required by employers and the variety of career opportunities available. This work has achieved a great deal of success.

The way in which partnerships are run has evolved to reflect the growing demands of our industry and education. It is also supporting the Scottish Government’s Good Food Nation policy to help young people understand the importance of sourcing and eating healthy local food.

Healthy eating is a key part of this work, it is also important to ensure that the young people participating have fun and are allowed to exercise as much creativity and freedom as possible when designing new products that reflect their tastes.

With partners Brakes Scotland, the Royal Highland Education Trust and ASSIST FM we run an annual Braw Brakes Lunch Challenge which is open to primary schools across Scotland. Pupils are tasked with designing a healthy new lunch dish that they would like to eat and that contains local produce. This encourages creativity and for pupils to investigate local produce and food producers in their communities.

This year we launched the Tilda Together Street Food Challenge – with leading rice producer Tilda – for Scottish secondary schools. We challenged pupils to create a new dish which takes inspiration from today’s trends and cuisines from round the world that influence the way we eat now.

Through this process the pupils learn about the people involved in processing the staple ingredient of rice, the role of different parts of the industry including local producers and farmers and the opportunities a career in the food industry can provide. An important ingredient in this activity is for pupils to demonstrate the importance of a balanced diet and the health benefits wholegrain rice provides.

We also run numerous other product development challenges with partners including Developing Young Workforce, Quality Meat Scotland, Scottish Craft Butchers and individual businesses that encourage pupils to design new street food dishes. The young people have a free rein to design any product they would like – it has to be healthy and include local produce.

Giving the pupils the freedom to be creative and unrestricted in their dishes has been incredibly successful. The students have been inspired and it has resulted in numerous exciting new dishes and an increased appetite for a career in food and drink.

Supporting the development of Scotland’s young people is going to be even more important for the future of our vital industry. Projects like these are a brilliant way for school pupils to see that food and drink is a great place to grow their careers.

Moira Stalker, Skills Manager, Food and Drink Federation Scotland