Our butchery apprentices have been practising sausage making as part of their college based activities during National Apprenticeship Week.
The sausages, which are made from local pork, will be made into hot dogs and will be sold from our catering van and restaurant at our Live Lambing and Zoo event next weekend (March 9 / 10).
Nine Level 2 apprentices who all work for local craft butchers took part in the session, which was led by Master Butcher and trainer Gary Evans.
The apprentice butchers, who are in the first year of their Level 2 programme, learn practical knife skills in our bespoke butchery room and study subjects such as the theory of retail and production, customer service and health and hygiene in the classroom.
They come to college on one day a week for 14 weeks when their employers’ businesses are relatively quiet and spend the rest of their time in the workplace.
The apprenticeship follows a new programme which aims to deliver the skills which employers need and ends with an end point assessment.
The apprentices who took part in the practical session were:
Arron Morrison (The Hollies Farm Shop, Little Budworth); Elizabeth James (W. James and Sons, Stoke-on-Trent); Kyle Owen (Buttercross Farm Foods, Market Drayton); Andrew Whittaker (Bexleys Craft Butchers, Bootle); Lewis Berta-Henstock (Woods Butchers, Knutsford); Harvey Allan (Barrows Butchers, Bollington); Emma Robinson (Edges Butchers, Chester) and Joel Farley, who is currently changing employers.
Emma, who completed a food degree before beginning her apprenticeship, said: ”I really enjoy my job, particularly the customer side and learning what you can do with different cuts of meat to make products which will bring added value to the business. I enjoy learning and my apprenticeship has a good balance between practical and theory.”
Arron said: “I enjoy coming into college. The lecturers are very Informative and you learn useful skills which you can use at your workplace. It’s fun too.”
Click here to find out more about the apprenticeships we offer.
