Lincoln Institute for Agri-Food Technology

The food industry is experiencing a skills shortage right now, it needs an injection of staff to ensure it is able to continue to grow and provide the opportunities it has done in the past. You will find that most food and agriculture organisations have a graduate scheme to encourage new and exciting talent into the business and many of these schemes offer highly competitive benefits.

The food and agri industry is a huge sector both in the UK and globally. The food and drink industry is the UK’s largest manufacturing sector, contributing £28.2bn to the economy annually and employing 400,000 people. Within this there are a whole range of roles that would be suitable for someone with an MSc in Agri Food Technology.

You can see what careers other graduates who studied your degree entered by reading the Prospects ‘What Do Graduates Do?’ guide:

Career Options 

Your course will have opened up a range of diverse opportunities. Some of these are listed below:

• Agronomist
• New Product Developer
• Food Technologist
• Quality Assurance Manager
• Technical Brewer
• Agricultural Consultant
• Food Compliance Officer
• Retail Food Technologist
• Commercial Horticulturist
• Marketing Officer
• Analytical Technologist

Job Search

As an Agri- Food Technology student interested in working in the agri- food industry, you are lucky as there are a number of jobs boards that are specifically for those interested in working in the food industry. In addition to job boards there are also a number of recruitment agencies that only recruit for food companies.

Job Sites and Recruitment Agencies for the Food Industry

The below are some job boards that specifically list opportunities in the food industry:

• Tasty Careers
• Your Food Job
• Food Management Jobs
• Grocer Jobs
• Zest
• B3

Graduate Schemes

Most food and agri companies have graduate schemes in place and are keen to recruit new talent into the business. A number of companies will have graduate jobs that you apply directly to, where you will carry out a specific role. However, in contrast a graduate scheme lasts a fixed period of time (the company tends to keep you on after this time as long as there haven’t been any issues!) and may allow you to move across the business to experience a range of different roles and teams to find out which you are best suited to. A few of the schemes that you may be interested in are listed below but this is only a small snapshot. Many of these companies will recruit early on in the academic year so you will need to be looking to apply as soon as you start your MSc.

• Mondelez (Cadbury, Oreo, Belvita)
• Arla
• Nestle
• AB Agri
• Kerry Group
• Cranswick Foods
• Bakkavor
• Pepsico
• Frontier Agriculture

MDS run a two year graduate scheme with placements in a variety of food companies. 

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

For general support and information about protected characteristics please visit our Diversity, Equality and Inclusion page. 

• Grocery Girls– A non-profit organisation founded by Jo Whitfield, CEO of Co-op Food to inspire and empower women into senior leadership, at all stages of their careers.
• Pride in STEM – their goal is to raise the profile of LGBT+ people in science, technology, engineering and maths/medicine (STEM) as well as to highlight the struggles LGBTSTEM people often face. They aim to “queer up science spaces” and to “science up queer spaces”.
• BBSTEM – inspires the young Black British generation to pursue STEM subjects in university and beyond. 
• STEMM Disability Advisory Committee– providing support across science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine for disabled workers, current and aspiring disabled students and their teachers.
• WISE– enables and energises people in business, industry and education to increase the participation, contribution and success of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

Agri-food Career Videos:

If you’d like more personalised advice on how to start thinking about your career in food and agriculture, you can always book a Careers Guidance session with one of our advisors for a one to one chat.