You could say it’s almost a given that if you can survive the jam-packed two-year MDS scheme, you’ll be ready for what the equally fast-paced fresh produce industry can throw at you. Involving four placements at various high-profile fresh produce companies including the likes of G’s, Waitrose, Winchester Growers, QV Foods and Vitacress to mention a few, many of the students have gone on to work for one or more of their chosen industry placements, having made some useful connections.
But it’s not just the career paths that have been paved out. There’s an obvious camaraderie between the MDS graduates, especially within the specific year groups that studied and went on the team skill-building activities together over their two-year course.
It seems to be the general opinion that the MDS scheme is providing the support that young people in the industry need. It can be an overwhelming time to start a job in any industry, but throw in the added pressure of travel, business with different cultures and a mass of product information to learn, and the fresh produce industry can become a pressurised environment for anyone straight out of university.
Here, we take a look at just a few of the careers helped along the way by the MDS scheme. -
SOPHIE BANBRIDGE
Account manager at Barfoots of Botely
MDS: 2007-09
MDS placements:
Empire World Trade (quality control)
Barfoots of Botley (commercial admin, customer analyst and project role)
Background: Read Spanish and Fresh at the University of Kent
Bambridge was the part of the first MDS scheme to achieve the postgraduate certificate and unsure of what she wanted to do after university, it was a natural move to follow in her father's - Greenvale's Tony Bambridge - footsteps and go into the fresh produce industry. "Although I was brought up within a fresh produce background and it's helped that I understand the business from that point of view, it was really the fact that I could use my language skills on a day-to-day basis in this industry that made my mind up," says Bambridge. "I remained with Barfoots for most of my placements and travelled from Spain to the US to Kenya. It was really exciting and I took a permanent job two years ago.
"The way I look at things has changed since doing the MDS course and suddenly, you can see past the day to day. Your outlook changes as you go through the course and you gain confidence. You're given the freedom to change and evolve."
DAVID MITCHELL
Top Fruit Buyer at Waitrose
MDS: 2000-02
Previous positions:
Horticulture buyer at Waitrose
Sales manager at Brinkmans Nurseries (now known as Landgard UK)
MDS placements:
Brinkmans Nurseries (technical role leading onto sales and NPD)
Winchester Growers (daffodil harvest manager)
Langmead Farms (baby leaf harvest manager)
Fyffes (project work)
Background: Read horticulture at the University of Strathclyde
MDS highlight: Meeting his now wife Lucy Mitchell and former MDS student, who is a previous employee of Barfoots of Botley. The couple met when their placements crossed over at Fyffes during the MDS scheme.
Although Mitchell is not originally from a farming background, he has maintained a strong interest in horticulture, moving from dealing with ornamentals to fruit within Waitrose, where he has now worked for four years.
It was at Winchester Growers that his passion for ornamentals was awakened. “I went from Cornwall to Spalding for the spring season to manage the daffodil production and it was quite special to be part of,” he says. “I had to supervise the harvest to make sure we got every stem into the coldstore. Then around 2001, we had an explosion in garden makeover TV shows and the market was increasingly looking for instant gardens, which we were well placed to supply at Brinkmans, with large specimen plants. It was definitely the sector to be in.”
Mitchell spent five years with Brinkmans Nurseries in ornamentals and then was approached by Waitrose with a buyer role. “The thing I most enjoy about working for Waitrose is being in touch with the seasons,” he continues. “We source a great deal from the UK and product provenance is extremely important. Waitose values experience when it comes to buyers, which makes it a great place to work.”
ALASDAIR MACLENNAN
Managing Director at Cygnet PB Ltd
MDS: 1997-1999
Previous positions:
Senior manager at SEF Ltd
Product/technical manager at Sainsbury’s
Head of seed and export at the British Potato Council
MDS placements:
G’s Marketing (production manager in Ely)
H&L Aykroyd, Inverness
Vitacress Portugal (crop manager)
QV Foods (buyer in Lincolnshire)
Sainsbury’s (technical placement in London)
Background: Read agriculture at the University of Aberdeen
MacLennan saw an advert for the MDS scheme in Farmers Weekly 18 months after he graduated from the University of Aberdeen and thought it was just the kind of entrance into the fresh food industry he was looking for. After coming out of the arable sector, he found the fresh produce industry fast paced and unpredictable, with his first placement overseeing G’s lettuce production for all the retail accounts, with up to 50 staff to manage.
“It was a high stress environment with such a perishable product and it was either sink or swim,” says McLennan. “Being on MDS, you get to be part of all the different parts of the fresh produce chain. It also opened up a lot of opportunities for me and gave me a great network of contacts across the industry. Being placed in rural Portugal for eight months with staff that spoke no English and 50 hectares of high value crop to look after was a great, if challenging, experience.”
His time in Portugal was the highlight of MacLennan’s two years with MDS. “It is a great place to live and work and to be able to do this while being paid a real world salary and furthering my career at the same time was great,” he says. “The operation was in rural Portugal, 300km from base and I had to integrate into the local agriculture scene and learn to speak Portuguese in order to keep the machines working and the crop growing.
“There are two key elements to MDS that I think benefitted me most. The first is the fact that you get real responsibility in a number of roles in different companies over a short period of time and second is the invaluable network of contacts this allows you to build up.”
No comments yet