As part of Second Nature, we’re committed to providing employment solutions for young people in our local communities. This National Butcher’s Week, we spent some time with two of our brilliant Butchery Apprentices and long standing Butcher, Roy.
Our apprenticeship scheme is at the heart of our butchery business. It’s crucial for us to recruit, train and nurture local talent to preserve our business and the butchery craft.
Butchery is not something you can learn at school and is sometimes a trade that is forgotten about, so it’s important for us to engage with our local community and teach the skills from scratch. This can be a long but rewarding process taking 15 months to complete our course, resulting in a Level 2 NVQ in Butchery from our partners at Bishop Burton College.
Our 35 Apprentices are all at various stages at our butchery school, benefitting from over 50 years combined knowledge from our training team. Some of the trainers are previous apprentices themselves! We have 20 new apprentices starting in April, and over 1000 butchers across the business
Butchery isn’t a career that people often think of when it comes to choosing next steps, but has plenty of rewards: stability, with a job for life for those that are willing to put the work in, and progression through the different grades of Butchers and further through our supervisory team, who all started as butchers.
Dominic has worked with us for 6 years, and has progressed his way to become a Quality Champion: “I finished my apprenticeship in August 2015 and am proud to have progressed to a Grade 1 Butcher. I’m now responsible for producing quality work and helping those around me do the same. It’s also really rewarding be involved in the supervision and training of our new apprentice butchers. I’ve got a clear career progression path, and am really keen to see how far I can go.
I became a butcher because I knew I would have a job for life. I enjoy my job. Not just for the skills, security and salary, but also because of the people you have around you. As butchers we stick together, and I have gained many friends.”
Elliott started with the business in January 2019, “I completed my apprenticeship in February 2020 after 13 months on the scheme. I’ve been nominated for Apprentice of the Year at the Institute of Meat Awards and won, which was a really big achievement for me and something I am really proud of.
Before I started I didn’t know anything about Butchery. I became a butcher because I wanted to learn a trade which is why I chose an apprenticeship - I won Apprentice of the Year at the Institute of Meat Awards, I’m skilled, have job security, a good wage and lots of qualifications to my name. Going forward I’m still looking to learn and progress and then it’s all about seeing how far I can go.”
Long standing butcher Roy, our Butchery Academy Supervisor started as an apprentice butcher in 1974 in House of Fraser when he was 16. He took a chance on butchery, moving into production before joining the Cranswick team in 1991 when he was 33.
Roy has been based at Preston now for 29 years in different capacities. Starting as a piece work boner before he helped set up the pace lines, training the block butchers ready for the change.
“When the lines were put into the factory, I was also responsible for supervising the leg lines. Training is a passion of mine and I’m proud to say I helped set up and now supervise the training of the next generation of butchers in our Apprenticeship Programme, passing on my years of knowledge. This has to be my favourite thing about being a butcher. I started as an apprentice so it is great for me to be able to have trained well over a hundred apprentices.”
Lee is Butchery Manager and has been with the business and butchery department since 1997, working on butchers block before progressing to pacelines. “I’m multi skilled on all areas of the carcass, but I have to say middles are a favourite as that’s the cut I enjoy eating the most! I started my management journey as a quality champion for convenience meats before progressing to Line Leader, followed by Area Leader.
Some career highlights for me have been setting up, with great success the Shoulder Deboflex system, and we are currently working on a similar project for legs. A big focus for me over the past few years has been our Apprenticeship scheme, which I take great pride in. It’s important for us as a department to become self-sufficient with butchers and develop local talent. The team around me are immensely important to our department’s success, some of whom I have worked with now for several years, who are all excellent butchers. We’re keen to develop and promote from within which is why all the butchery team started as butchers in my department.”
To find out more about our Butchery Apprenticeship Scheme, click here.