Herbert Chan – Student

European Quality Department - Student Placement

Last year, I took the opportunity to join the world’s biggest cereal company for a year as a placement student. It has turned out to be a good decision which has allowed me to have a greater insight into the food industry and has helped me to develop different useful skills throughout the placement.

I’m a second year student who is doing my Nutrition and Food Science degree in the University of Nottingham. My role in the European Quality Department involves working closely with two departments, the Raw Material and Co-Manufacturer Department, which deal with all the raw materials supplied to Kellogg’s and quality issues related to third party manufacturers respectively.

Working in the Quality Department gives me a premium opportunity to get involved in daily food review, which I guess is one of the most desirable jobs - I’ve been eating lots of different healthy and tasty cereals everyday in the past six months. This invaluable experience enables me to accumulate knowledge about cereal products and have a better understanding of the quality review process as well as crisis management.

Investing in people is one of Kellogg’s main priorities, and I believe this element is driving Kellogg’s to every success in the business. I am deeply impressed by the amount of resources they have invested in me to develop skills and values as a student. For example, I was given a two day induction workshop which was organised by the HR department to develop K values, several chances to visit the Manchester and the Wrexham factory to take part in activities such as production trial and first production run. Also, I had more than ten induction meetings from different departments such as finance and marketing to learn more about the business side of Kellogg’s and how to work across departments.

There are plenty of opportunities in Kellogg’s for a student to discover and explore. For instance, I’d expressed my interest in working in the R&D Department to my manager before, and she arranged a one week R&D working experience for me to go a week later!

In terms of the benefits and working environment, I’m sure Kellogg’s is one of the best companies to work for in the world! Kellogg’s has provided me an open, friendly and non-blaming working environment where I can really concentrate on my work, as well as different benefits like 'Buy-1-Get-1-Free Share Scheme', flexi-time and summer working hours for me to enjoy a good work/life balance. All my colleagues have always been a great help to me on everything even if they have tonnes of work to do!

I’m enjoying my life at Kellogg’s and I’m trying to get the most out of my placement in the remaining time. I hope you also get the chance to experience what I’m going through in the future!