Swindon & Wiltshire Careers Hub and Maths teachers across Wiltshire are on a mission to make maths more popular with the younger generation.

Partnering up with Wiltshire Council, Swindon Borough Council, The Careers & Enterprise Company, Swindon & Wiltshire Local Enterprise Partnership and local businesses, the project is dedicated to showing students how maths is used in different places of work.

It aims to encourage more young people to continue to study maths at a higher education level by showing them how many careers use mathematical skill.

To achieve this, each employer was set a topic to show how its staff use maths in the workplace. Trowbridge-based business, apetito welcomed a group of Year Seven pupils from Lydiard Park Academy for a Maths-filled afternoon.

Paolo Lamparelli, from apetito’s Specialist Nutrition team, and Vasiliki Kosma, from its Data Analytics team, demonstrated to the pupils how they use percentages in their respective jobs. They then set up a challenge for the pupils to learn more about how maths is used at apetito and its sister company, Wiltshire Farm Foods.

Each group of pupils were assigned a Wiltshire Farm Foods franchise to support. They were tasked with identifying which products were popular and which were underperforming, so they could decide if any products should be delisted. They also worked on a marketing campaign, where they had to identify which products would be most effective as part of a marketing offer. They then had the opportunity to present their findings and receive feedback from their classmates and senior marketing employees.

All that brain power required some sustenance, so apetito made sure that the pupils got the chance to try its revolutionary Finger Food Bites range. Specially designed for people with dementia, apetito’s Finger Food Bites are full meals in cube form, enabling people living with dementia to pick up and eat a nutritious meal with their fingers. The dishes include Sausage Casserole and Veggie Bolognese and are designed to give those living with dementia independence and dignity when dining.

Providing pupils with the opportunity to learn how maths is used in the workplace is such an invaluable experience, explained apetito’s Learning and Development Manager, Zoe Beauvoisin, who arranged the visit along with Learning and Development Officer, Sophie McFarlane:

“I’m also an Employment Advisor for John of Gaunt School in Trowbridge, so I’ve seen first-hand how important it is to encourage pupils to take up maths and stem subjects, particularly girls who have a higher rate of dropping those subjects when it comes to higher education. It’s been such a great project for apetito to take part in.”

“The pupils’ visit to apetito was a really great opportunity for them to learn more about what a modern workspace is like and how maths is used and how relevant it is to us here at apetito. It was the students’ first school trip since the covid pandemic, so it was a very exciting day for everyone.”