Amelia Dayson, 17, a Level 2 Butchery Apprentice from Leeds. But what makes her so special?
Millie was in year 11 at school in 2020, when Covid began. Her exams were stopped, her school was closed and her future as she thought was jolted.
The local butchers, Firths Quality Meats, in Boston Spa, were advertising for a Saturday job and cleaner for the store, and a nervous Millie at the time, applied, and got the role.
After a month or so of working at Firth’s Millie joined full time, later beginning her Level 2 Butchery Apprenticeship in the July of 2020.
Her apprenticeship and career have had the biggest impact on her self-confidence, Millie said,
“…If you met me in 2020 or any time before that, I was literally a turtle! I couldn’t talk to anyone…”
I asked Millie what her thoughts were on apprenticeships and how they’ve impacted her,
“…apprenticeships just work. Crosby give you a personal 1-2-1 experience with your trainer, which is so much easier, and you can ask whatever you want without being embarrassed or nervous of those around you, I feel I receive a deeper understanding and more valuable information that I would, had I been in a classroom. You’re learning on-the-job, in a work environment, rather than going to a college or university you’re gradually building yourself into what’s around you. I feel if it’d been classroom-based programme, it would have taken a lot longer to reach EPA (End Point Assessment) …”
Our lives, careers and learning journeys have all been somewhat impacted over the past couple of years, even though it seems it seems like yesterday when people were scrambling for toilet roll and queuing for the shops. Millie said,
“…lockdown was tough, and busy. There was a queue down the street, all day, every day. It was repetitive and hard work, but if there were people outside, we served them. It threw me into the deep end without a doubt. I never contemplated leaving, or pausing, I knew the knowledge I was gaining was valuable and would pay off…”
The aim of an apprenticeship is to help people gain new knowledge, skills, and behaviours to improve their competency in specific roles, from Butchery to Human Resources apprenticeships help develop people into their roles as well as offering existing colleagues career development.
“…I feel my pay now reflects what I’ve learned in knowledge, skills and behaviours, but I wouldn’t say that was my motivation. My motivation was to get the apprenticeship done, learn a new skill, grow in myself and my knowledge. The pay is a nice added extra too…”
I continued to ask Millie, who grew up wanting to be a vet, about her future career prospects as a female in the butchery industry,
“…seeing people {Margaret Boanas, Master of The Worshipful Company of Butchers} so high up in the butchery industry definitely encourages me, especially in such a male dominated industry. It’s a good aspiration. I’d like to go on to complete my Level 3 Advanced Butcher apprenticeship and continue my learning, and to see where the world takes me. I know it will be challenging but Crosby and my employers {Firths Quality Meats} are supportive and that really helps…”
If Millie were to start her Level 2 Butcher apprenticeship again, or give advice to someone thinking about completing a butchery apprenticeship it would be,
“…to read the MEP (Meat Education Programme) books, they’re daunting but realistically everything you need to know is in those books, you’re just putting it into practice, and you’ll learn so much quicker. I was nervous to start the apprenticeship and even more nervous for EPA, but you wouldn’t be going trough if you weren’t ready. Use what you already know. I picked lamb as my subject for EPA and broke one down every week leading up and then did the whole lamb. It was a bonus to open the envelope and see Leg of Lamb, we sell these all the time!”
As an addition to the apprenticeship programme Crosby offer an experiential learning experience in the way of a residential. Millie attended a residential to Snowdonia whilst on her Level 2 apprenticeship, she’d never done anything like this before. This was completely outside of Millie’s comfort zone, especially travelling on her own.
“…The team at Crosby were really supportive through the whole process, Paul especially. It ended up being a really good experience and really fun. If I did the Level 3 Advanced Butcher, I’d like to do the residential again, it was good to meet the other apprentices which gave me ideas and motivation to bring back to the shop…”
I took some time to speak with Ross, Amelia’s line manager, and co-owner of Firths Quality Meats. Ross began by saying
“…Amelia’s grown massively, she’s freer to talk to people, without being as nervous! It’s a great thing for a young person to be interactive like that…”
Ross continued to suggest the thought of apprenticeships to other butchers’ shops around the country
“…I absolutely recommend apprenticeships as a way of learning. You start from the bottom, but you teach them all the way to them becoming a competent butcher, which is great to watch. We found Crosby on the internet, local doesn’t always mean the best choice. The perspective of day release from Crosby being a 1-2-1 service in our shop is so much better than losing the apprentice to a college for a day. You can actively see them learning too, so when the trainer leaves, you have more of an idea of what to focus on with your apprentice. Amelia’s progress in confidence and knife skills are amazing, it still surprises me. The trainers at Crosby are able to get a feel for your shop and tailor the apprenticeship to that…”
Overall, Amelia’s experience of Crosby and her apprenticeship was so positive she wants to do it again! More recently, Amelia has expressed her interest for the Level 3 apprenticeship and wants to continue building her skills and knowledge in the Butchery industry.
So, watch this space! Could we soon be seeing the youngest female to pass their Level 3 apprenticeship?
written by Lily O’Brien
