Loughry National Diploma Students ‘Meat’ the Real World

An integral part of the National Diploma courses at the Loughry Campus of the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE), is the 12 week work placement in the food industry. In the month of ‘Love NI Meat’, we are looking at three of the National Diploma students on placement in one of Northern Ireland’s largest red meat companies – Dunbia Ltd, in their Dungannon plant.

National Diploma students on placement in Dunbia Ltd

Dillon Taylor from Coleraine, Alex Orr and Abigail Cuddy both from Dungannon applied to Dunbia for their summer work placement. They went through a rigorous interview process and were accepted into the retail plant to work as quality control technicians.

All three students are really enjoying the experience. Alex commented: “It has helped me to put into practice the work we completed in our first year at the college and hopefully I will take skills back to Loughry that will help me complete the National Diploma and for my future career!”

The Technical Manager of the retail plant is Leah Wylie, a previous Loughry National Diploma graduate, who, after graduation has worked her way up the management ladder from QA Technician to her current role. Leah believes that the work placement that Loughry students complete is crucial. “The students that we employ easily meet the standard that the business requires. As they have already experienced working in food processing environments as part of the practically orientated National Diploma course. We find these skills are easily transferable to our large scale manufacturing business.”

To find out more about food courses at Loughry campus, visit the CAFRE website. 

Notes to editors: 

1.    All media enquiries to DAERA Press Office, pressoffice.group@daera-ni.gov.uk or tel: 028 9052 4619.

2.    Follow us on Twitter: @daera_ni. 

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