Loughry Food Student on placement with Karro Cookstown

Date published: 12 March 2018

Karro Food Group is one of the UK’s leading meat processors with pork processing plants across the country. It is a leading producer of bacon, gammon, pork, ham and cooked meats. I am based at their site in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, which is one of Northern Ireland’s largest pork processors.

At Karro, I am gaining excellent experience working in the Product Development Team where I am involved in developing new products for the market place. During the second year of my course at Loughry, I studied a module called Food Product Design. In this module, I worked in a team with fellow students to develop a new food product to present to Moy Park. My team were set a brief to develop a healthy chicken snack. I really enjoyed this module and decided that I would like to get further involved in the area of New Product Development.

Being on work placement is a great way to experience the world of work in the food industry whilst gaining a Diploma in Professional Practice and enhancing my CV. I believe that work placement is an important part of my course as it has given me the opportunity to develop my technical knowledge and skills. I am also developing many important transferable skills including communication, teamwork, time management and problem solving. In my role at Karro, I am able to apply the knowledge and skills I learnt in the Food Product Design Module, and in many other modules I have already completed at Loughry. I feel that this module has prepared me well for working in a busy product development team. It is exciting to develop a new product and then see it on the supermarket shelves!

The knowledge and skills gained on placement will be invaluable when I finish my degree and I am looking for a graduate role in the food industry.

If you want to find out more about what Loughry has to offer then come along to the Open Day on Tuesday 17 April 2018 from 3pm to 8pm and get a taste of campus life. For more information on any of our courses or facilities, freephone 0800 0284291 or visit the CAFRE website.