The Role and Team

You will be supporting the project engineering team and manufacturing to deliver improvements to equipment and operations. You will be working on a variety of projects that add value to the business and can make huge difference in every aspect of it, being given real responsibility to drive business improvement.

Throughout the year, you will predominantly be working on leading and managing Capital Expenditure projects, such as introducing or upgrading equipment on site. As well as this, you will be involved in energy saving projects, and data analysis of key factory process operations.

This role involves a balance of spending time in the factory – speaking to the team and evaluating current operations, as well as working in the office - holding discussions across departments, developing project specifications and business cases.

From this placement, you will develop in Excel and data analysis, project management, equipment installation, and leading a team. You will have exposure to wider business functions including product development, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing and learn much about how a business operates.

Who We Are

apetito is the UK’s leading supplier of food to the health and social care sectors. Servicing over 400 hospitals, 450 care homes and thousands more through our work with Local Authorities, we produce delicious, nutritious and sustainable meals for people at home or in care. Through our food we look to ‘make a real difference’ to all our customers, up and down the country.

This role forms part of our Graduate Development Programme. Full details on the programme can be found on our careers pages at apetito Graduates. Many of our placement students have gone on to join the company as Graduates on completing their degrees.

Our Values

Established in 1958, as a family-owned business, as a family-owned business, our values sit at the very heart of what we do. We are proud to be a business that makes a real difference, committed to producing great food to be proud of. We have developed a range of products designed to enhance health and wellbeing for all our customers. We are proud supporters of British food and farming and focus on using the best ethical and sustainable produce.

We are driven by a passion for service, dedicated to feeding some of the UK’s most vulnerable people, offering healthy and delicious meals to customers across the UK.

Ethical & Sustainable

As a business which operates within food manufacturing, we believe we have an obligation to make a positive contribution on society.

We are a member of The UK’s Plastics Pact, an initiative looking to transform the plastic packaging industry in the UK. We have recently launched our circular supply chain initiative through our Collect and Recycle scheme. We now collect used trays directly from our customers and return them to our packaging supplier, to produce new, directly recycled trays. This closed-loop initiative is the first of its kind in the world.

We have also made a commitment to our employees – we’re recognised as an accredited Living Wage employer by the Living Wage Foundation. Joining an elite group of FTSE 100 companies and public sector organisations

Working in a range of environments to gain experience in equipment specification and operation, managing contractors, leading meetings across departments with exposure to senior management, identifying and executing energy saving opportunities.

You will have the opportunity to learn and develop skills in project management, contractor control and excel. Previous placement students have done PUWER training courses and Advanced Excel Courses.

Past projects include:

Capital investment in new equipment in excess of £100k

• Writing detailed project scopes and business cases.
• Researching potential suppliers & equipment available on the market.
• Managing structured tendering processes and evaluating quotations.
• Organizing installation of new equipment and training for staff.

Food Waste Reduction Equipment Upgrade

• Analysing quantity of food waste from inefficient equipment
• Researching alternative designs that minimise waste
• Developing equipment specifications and supplier selection
• Leading and coordinating the project for new equipment installation

Freezer Temperature Optimisation

• Identify areas for energy savings
• Conducting trials to compare temperature of food and surroundings
• Research available technologies
• Installation of ‘food mimicking’ temperature probe covers to optimise freezer temperatures

Finger Food Bites

• Developed the process for manufacturing a new range of products aimed at patients with dementia
• Understanding cycle times for each stage of the process to understand how to optimise this
• Develop innovative engineering solutions to improve Health & Safety, Quality, Efficiency
• Turned vision of Product Development team into a reality

Essential:

You must have excellent organizational, people management and decision making skills.

You will be studying towards a degree in Engineering/Mathematics/Sciences related discipline with the expectation that you will receive a 2:1 (graduating 2025/2026) or above and are looking to complete a year-long placement as part of your degree.

As this is a placement role, both formal and informal training will be available to develop technical skills. What is most important is to be keen to get involved in a dynamic factory environment, to be excited to learn about the manufacture and distribution of food, and to gain new skills and techniques ranging from project management to developing detailed specifications and knowledge on mechanical and electrical equipment.

This role will require time to be spent on the shop floor to understand problems, so you need to be comfortable being “hands on” and talking to both the production operators and the management team. This will ensure engagement and understanding of any projects which will be introduced. You will also need to be confident to lead discussions and bring ideas together from different departments.

Desirable experience:

• Project Management
• 2D and 3D CAD modelling
• Working in a food production environment

Personal Qualities:

We are looking for someone who is passionate to learn and develop in manufacturing, specifically in food, who will be looking to deliver the best quality products for our customers.

The successful applicant will be a self-starter who would rather be too busy than not busy enough. If you find something which doesn’t feel right, you won’t ignore it, but will instead ask “why?” or “what can I do?”. You will need to be happy to speak to teams on the shop floor to better understand their problems and feed these up in order to resolve them.

The successful applicant will be able to work well in a team environment and have a structured approach to work. You will need to feel comfortable working with staff at all levels, and communicate effectively in meetings, presentations, and written reports.