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Apprentice Spotlight: Kate Rose - Level 6 Food Industry Technical Professional Degree Apprenticeship

Kathryn Rose

Why did you choose to do an apprenticeship?

“An apprenticeship means that I can learn and gain knowledge in an area I am interested in and then put this knowledge into action and apply it in the workplace. I can learn and earn at the same time and being in the workplace also allows me to gain skills in other areas too, including teamwork and project management. I enjoy learning in this way because it brings the knowledge learnt to life and makes it relatable to the industry I am in.”

Kathryn Rose

In March 2022 Kate was also delighted to be awarded Apprentice of the Year at the Food Manufacturing Excellence Awards! This followed her pivotal final assessment with Mondelez, investigating natural alternatives to sugar, which in turn formed part of the programme supporting the UK launch of Cadbury 30% reduced sugar chocolate.

What stands out about Nottingham Trent University?

“The staff at NTU make the lessons interesting and interactive and with their industry experience they can relate their teaching to the industries we are in as apprentices.

The Brackenhurst campus where my course is based has a lot of facilities, including the microbiology and food technology labs which are great for getting hands on experience whilst at university. They contain many pieces of equipment too which helps us to experience and learn lots of different techniques.”

How do you believe this apprenticeship will affect both your current job role and future career?

“Gaining this degree through the apprenticeship will open more future career options as the degree covers a broad range of topics in the food industry, including those that are visible to me in my role in the workplace.

This apprenticeship has positively affected my current job role by allowing me to use my knowledge of other areas of the food industry to ask questions to project leads and bring a holistic view to the projects I am involved in.”

What do you think of the facilities available at NTU? This includes online resources.

“Being an apprentice away from the NTU campus most of the time, I interact with the online resources a lot more than other facilities. NTU has access to a large range of online databases for researching and writing assignments which is great when the library is harder to access when not on site. The library team facilities include guidance on how to write assignments and referencing amongst others are very useful.

It is easy to set up a meeting with a member of one of the library team to talk through what you need support with. The NTU NOW facilities are a great way of keeping all university related content for your modules in one place and this is helpful to keep organised and know where to find the required pieces of information. NTU also has good on campus facilities when on block release (extended periods of leave to continue studying), including good sized teaching classrooms and good micro-labs and food technology labs for practical work.”

What is your favourite thing about your apprenticeship?

“My favourite thing about my apprenticeship is that the modules we have cover a broad range of topics within the food industry, including: food raw materials, consumer nutrition and health and food technology and microbiology. Within my professional role I only experience one particular area, but when I am at university I learn about lots of other areas which increases my knowledge about the wider food industry which I can use in my future career."

To learn more about our apprenticeship courses, please contact apprenticeships@ntu.ac.uk.