Today marks the 1-year anniversary for me at Crosby Management Training, and what a year it has been! I have made the most of all the opportunities I have been given and I look forward to seeing where my next year takes me with such a fantastic company.
Since September last year there have been some major adjustments; I am no longer breaking up forequarters anymore (or carrying them on my little legs!), I have been given the responsibility to create my own diary and have developed a fantastic rapport with my learners and their managers.
In my first big workshop with Crosby, we held a Meat Science workshop in the Wolverhampton conference room. We invited all our learners and it was great to meet them all and see the discussions they had about work from their own shops and experiences. AHDB were kind enough to give a talk on all sorts of aspects of the variables in the quality of meat and how the science affects it all. This was an interesting and informative day for me, and all involved, and I can imagine we all came away with a better understanding of how temperature and hanging techniques change the way meat in enjoyed.
I have also had brilliant opportunities to visit some spectacular farms and immaculate, state-of-the-art abattoirs. Giving learners this invaluable experience, from seeing them feed to how they are hung, has been a fantastic part of my journey into training and helped me bring to life the process of how we are able to have such tasty and tender meat.
One huge part of the year that has been very encouraging was being nominated for the Women in Meat Industry Awards for the Training and Education category. I was nominated and was fortunate enough to make it to the final four and the online voting began. It has been a great way to advertise young women in the meat industry and to be a role model is such an honour. I look forward to the final which will be held in November 2020 where all the amazing women are celebrated and awarded. I look forward to meeting all my fellow nominees and reconnecting with the fantastic people I have met in the past.
My first year has been filled with great success. From having my first level 3 learner passing her exams first time to holding a well-received remote EPA meeting with the Institute of Meat and Institute for Apprenticeships, it has been an incredible journey. On top of that I have been able to sign up new learners throughout the pandemic and delivered the apprenticeships remotely from home.
I’m looking forward to my next year at Crosby and I can’t wait to see how I progress. There are so many opportunities – leading team meetings for the butchery department, attending the awards ceremony for Women in Meat Industry Awards, signing up new learners and having exam success with my present learner – and I plan to enjoy every step of the journey.
