We welcome our first cohort of Food and Drink Maintenance Engineer apprentices

We’re excited to share that we’ve officially enrolled our first cohort of Level 3 Food and Drink Maintenance Engineer (FDME) apprentices at our Pagefield Campus – a major milestone for us as a college and for the region’s food and drink manufacturing sector.

This pioneering group includes four talented apprentices:

• Daniel Scullion – Muller
• Daniel Shaw – Muller
• Kai Lister-Hargreaves – Muller
• Patryk Oleksy – Dunbia UK

The North-West is home to one of the UK’s largest food and drink manufacturing clusters, employing around 57,000 people and contributing £4.4 billion to the regional economy. Apprenticeships like this are helping to address critical skills gaps and ensure a strong pipeline of engineering talent for the future.

The Food and Drink Maintenance Engineer apprenticeship develops the next generation of multi-skilled engineers who keep food manufacturing equipment and systems running smoothly, safely and efficiently. Apprentices gain expertise in areas such as automation, process control, and maintenance technologies, skills that are essential to meeting the sector’s growing demand for technically capable engineers.

This programme is a first for us at Wigan & Leigh College, and we’ve worked closely with the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink and industry professionals. Our dedicated Food and Drink tutors have collaborated with employers to create a delivery model that works for both learners and businesses—starting with block release in the first year, followed by day release in the years that follow, allowing apprentices to balance learning with hands-on experience.

“We’re proud to see Wigan and Leigh College, part of our NSAFD Provider Network, delivering the Level 3 Food and Drink Engineering Maintenance apprenticeship to apprentices from Muller and Dunbia – two valued members of our Employer Services Network. This first cohort represents a major step forward in building the technical talent our sector needs, and we’re delighted to have supported its development from the ground up.” Louise Cairn, CEO, National Skills Academy Food and Drink.

We’re proud to be supporting the development of engineering talent in this vital industry, and we’re keen to speak with more food and drink employers about how we can help with new recruits or upskilling existing staff through an apprenticeship.

“This is a proud moment for Wigan & Leigh College and a significant step for the region’s food and drink sector,” said Karl Rogers, Head of Employer Engagement. “We’re committed to working with employers to train the engineers of tomorrow to keep our food production facilities running safely, efficiently and sustainably.”

If you’re an employer in the sector and would like to explore how we can support your workforce development, please get in touch with Andrew Fleetwood in our Employer Engagement Team on employerengagement@wigan-leigh.ac.uk.

Together, we can build the future of food and drink engineering.