“The food industry will always have jobs as people will always need to eat, so why wouldn’t you want a degree in it?” says Ryan White.

“Food Technology was the subject I was good at and enjoyed the most, and there will always be a job in the food industry as people will always need to eat, so why wouldn’t you want to study a degree in food technology?”, says BSc (Hons) Food Technology and Product Development graduate, Ryan White.

Since finishing his studies this year, Ryan has acquired a graduate job with the Business Improvement Process Team at his placement provider, Premier Foods.

“It’s quite a good story of how I got my placement…during my first year at Harper, we did a module called ‘Nature of Food’ where we had to choose a product to study. We chose Mr Kipling’s Cherry Bakewell to present on, including information about the manufacturing process of it.

“We couldn’t find any information about this, so I contacted Premier Foods (the owner of the Mr Kipling Brand) to see if they could help us out. We had a conversation about the course and the need to do a placement, they mentioned that they were interested in possibly offering a placement position, as they had never done so before and wanted to start doing so.

“Long story short, my placement year and now graduate role came from an email to Premier Foods. The moral of the story here is don’t be afraid to send that email or have that phone call. If I didn’t put myself out there and ask, I wouldn’t have got what I did from Premier Foods.

“My studies really helped with understanding ingredient properties and why they react the way they do, which was and is helpful to me in my year in industry and my graduate role as I work on projects that involve closely working with ingredients and making informed adjustments to recipes,” says the 22-year-old from Somerset.

Ryan, who is a sports enthusiast, knew he wanted to study food and heard about Harper Adams University through WhatUni? when he was researching possible degree courses and providers.

“The course modules really caught my eye and couple that with a great impression of the University from the open day and hearing nothing but good things about the university, that was it my heart was set on Harper.”

“Socially and educationally I have absolutely loved my time at Harper Adams, and I’m sad it has ended if I am honest.”

Avid traveller, Ryan’s academic accolades did not finish when he graduated as he has since been named as the recipient of the Chartered Institute of Marketing Food and Drink Sector Group Award, which is awarded to the student who has produced the best dissertation with a topic related to the agri-food and drink sector.

It took an open day for Ryan’s heart to be set on Harper Adams, come along to our November event to see if it does the same for yours…