Year 11 go ‘Inside the Factory’ at Bakkavor in Spalding
Year 11 go 'Inside the Factory' at Bakkavor in Spalding
Even though our Year 11 students are nearing the end of their journey at Spalding Academy, our amazing Careers department continues to help students explore the Post-16 and Post-18 pathways available to them.
One of the largest employers in the local area is Bakkavor, who have multiple sites based in Spalding, Boston, Holbeach and Sutton Bridge. They offer a wide range of Level 3 and Level 4 apprenticeship schemes that provide exciting opportunities for academic and professional progression. These include areas such as engineering, finance, HR, food technology, manufacturing, produce development and logistics.
Last month, we welcomed Bakkavor to showcase their Advanced and Higher Apprenticeship programmes with Year 11 by holding a Q&A workshop with current apprentices (including returning South Lincolnshire Academies Trust students) and an assembly with the whole year group.
This gained interest from many of our students, and we subsequently arranged the opportunity for a group of them to visit the Spalding site to go behind the scenes.
Dressed in white hygiene jackets, wellies and hair nets, our students had an insightful tour of the Bakkavor factory and were able to see the manufacturing cycle of soup from the kitchen to the distribution centre.
As well as a tour of the facilities, our students spoke current and recent apprentices who had organised several activities such as improving a process, supply chain of fresh produce, wiring a circuit and quality checking products.
Thank you to Bakkavor for arranging the visit and their hospitality of wraps, cakes and pasta, which were greatly received especially as students had just sat an exam that morning.
It is engagement with employers such as this that inspires our young people and motivates them to continue to look at careers and industries they would otherwise have not considered.
