Holly Jones on placement

Holly Jones graduated in 2014 with a BSc (Hons) Food and Consumer Studies (now Food Production and Marketing). She spent her placement year with Farndon Fields Farm Shop, where she worked in sales and marketing and assisted with the daily running of social media, the shop’s website and e-newsletter, and events organisation. We chatted with her when she took a break from revising for her final exams.

What have been the best things about your course?

Trips out, the placement year and meeting such great people.

What skills/knowledge have you gained that will be useful after you graduate?

Communication, teamwork and confidence.

What sort of projects have you been involved in?

For my dissertation I developed a gluten free angel slice cake bar. I wanted to do my dissertation on something which I enjoy – baking - so therefore decided to develop a gluten free version of the best selling cake bar which happened to be a Mr Kipling angel slice. The gluten free market is rapidly growing so it was the perfect product to develop.

How would you describe Harper Adams?

Amazing. Everyone is so friendly and you really do have the best time of your life.

And the teaching?

Very useful and friendly, always happy to help.

How about the facilities?

Very useful. The library is the best facility to help with studies. The learning support facilities are also brilliant.

What’s your favourite SU activity?

The social life is really good! My favourite SU activity is the summer ball.

What are your favourite memories of Harper Adams?

Meeting all the amazing people there.

Where did you spend placement?

Farndon Fields Farm Shop in Market Harborough, Leicestershire. I worked in sales and marketing and assisted with the daily running of social media, the website and e-newsletter as well as creating magazine adverts, shop signage and organising events.

What would you do in a typical day?

It varied day to day. Mainly social media, website updates, email enquiries, and shop floor signage.

What was the best thing about placement?

Putting my skills to use and learning new things.

Did you apply what you’d learned at Harper while you were on placement?

Yes, I was able to give my own point of view based on things I had learnt previously.

Have you been able to use anything you learned on placement in your final year?

Yes, as my final year was quite marketing based so this helped to understand the theory behind it.

Will placement help you in the future?

It's given me an insight into what I want to do later in life.