Tim Salkeld
Tim completed a Level Three apprenticeship in Food and Drink Technical Operations at the Nestlé Cereal Partners factory in Staverton, Wiltshire. He finished his apprenticeship in October 2023 and is now working in Health and Safety Support.
When I finished my A-Levels I knew I wanted to get hands-on experience but wasn't sure exactly what area I wanted to go into. The Food and Drink Technical Operations apprenticeship at Nestlé gave me the opportunity to work at a major company and get exposure to all areas of the business, including quality control, manufacturing excellence and health and safety.
It's not just the practical skills – my confidence has grown massively since I started my apprenticeship.
It also gave me the chance to take a look behind the scenes at how some of the most popular breakfast cereals – including the likes of Shredded Wheat and Shreddies – are made, which was really interesting.
Finding your passion
You get to see so many different parts of the business, and once you do find what you're interested in the team is really supportive in getting you involved in that work.
I discovered that I really enjoyed working with data, auditing and assessing compliance. I was given plenty of opportunities in that area and that's what ultimately led me to my current role in Health and Safety Support.
I worked on some great projects during my apprenticeship. I'm most proud of the role I played in completely revamping our Quality Assurance team's auditing system, moving all the data to a digital system, with photographs and QR codes to make everything easier to navigate. The feedback from the team was really positive, and it was great to know I'd made a real difference.
Nestlé were brilliant at facilitating our learning time around our work, making sure we had plenty of time to study. Everyone was really supportive of each other and made sure we had the right balance between working and studying, so we never felt under pressure.
Lifelong learning
It's not just the practical skills – my confidence has grown massively since I started my apprenticeship. I feel comfortable presenting and speaking up in meetings. I've had the opportunity to meet and learn from so many different people and picked up loads of knowledge from working with them.
Importantly, at Nestlé you don't stop developing when your apprenticeship is over. Now I've finished my apprenticeship I'm just about to start work on a new Occupational Health and Safety qualification and am really excited about the new opportunities this will open up.
