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Food Manufacture Magazine followed the Hutchinson Jonas Group undergraduate prize, covering the initial launch in December and announcing the award winner in the February edition.
Reading University gets food science award
Food Manufacture (December 2007)
A £500 annual award for food science students approaching their fourth year at Reading University is being launched by food and drink recruitment specialists Hutchinson Consultancy and Jonas Consulting.
The cash will be given to the student who performs the best during his or her placement year in industry and is designed to counter a lack of graduate confidence in the sector. The course tutor will decide who gets it, with the first such award set to be handed out in January.
Reading University’s Food Biosciences Centre of Excellence, the largest department of its kind in the UK, offers four food science undergraduate degrees.
The business driving the award represents a combination of two recruitment firms working with the sector, Hutchinson Consultancy and Jonas Consulting.
Scott Hutchinson, md of Hutchinson Consultancy says if the award proves successful, he is keen to see it rolled out to other academic institutions offering food science qualifications. “We went to Reading because it’s the most high profile of the food tech universities,” says Hutchinson. “If it goes well, I have no objections to doing the same for other universities and no objections to increasing the award. But it’s the first time we’ve done anything like this and we need to know how it will be received.
“I’ve worked in recruitment for the food industry for 15 years. I’ve got an awful lot out of this industry and I wanted to give something back.”
Jane Jonas, director of Jonas Consulting, says: "Working in recruitment we see the impact of the skills gap every day. It can be impossible to find qualified candidates for well paid, challenging roles. We wanted to take a proactive step in wooing the students and hope that the award will help them feel valued by the industry they are about to join and understand how in demand they are.”
Dr Mike Gordon, director of teaching & learning in the Department of Food Biosciences, says: "Many don't realise that starting salaries for food scientists are around £2,000-£3,000 more than the average for science graduates.
“The Hutchinson Jonas award is a great way of adding value to the course and showing our students that there are plenty of employment possibilities for them once they graduate.”
Award for Reading student
Food Manufacture (February 2008)
Stacey Griffin, final-year food science student at Reading University, is the first to receive the £500 Hutchinson Jonas award in recognition of her work placement achievements. Griffin spent a year working at Katsouris Fresh Foods.
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