Ella Wong
Ella showcases just how exciting a professional placement in industry can be.
I spent my professional placement year at Co-op Head Office in Manchester City Centre working as a Product Developer for the Cake, Bread & Morning Goods, Free-From and Grocery categories. Co-op is the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer and has been named the best convenience store, with more than 2500 stores across the country. They have a very well organised and structured placement scheme and offer 7 schemes in total, including product development, technical, quality assurance, and agriculture.
My role as a Product Developer was to develop innovative new products and improve existing products in the aforementioned categories. I was responsible for developing products from the initial idea to their launch in stores and everything in between. This involved working with suppliers, reviewing Co-op products against the market, devising strategy with the commercal team, and lots of food tasting!
I loved that no two days were the same. One day I’d be researching trendy new products, and the next I’d be developing a recipe. The role was so interactive, I was constantly communicating with suppliers, project managers, buyers, and other developers which meant that I was able to build a big network of contacts. Working with different groups at Co-op also really improved my overall business understanding.
My proudest achievement at Co-op was developing the 2023 Christmas range for the cake category by myself. I developed 11 products ranging from mince pies to centrepiece cakes to ‘smores’ brownies. It was very exciting when one of my products was awarded a Good Housekeeping’s top 10 best buy listing and showcased on ITV’s This Morning. My mince pies also won the Which? Magazine Award for best mince pie! Product development is such a rewarding job and seeing my products in stores and my family and friends buying them was such a surreal but amazing experience.
There are also lots of opportunities and fun activities alongside the day-to-day job: I attended Taste for London Food Festival, did a ‘cake innovation trawl’ all around London, spent time working within Co-op's PR team, delivered mock interviews for Year 11 children at Co-op Academy schools, and kickstarted a social media project.
Overall, my placement year at Co-op was invaluable in teaching me about the industry and opening my eyes to the job opportunities that are available to me. I not only learned specific industry skills but also lots of key transferable skills that have been very beneficial during my final year of university, and I know will continue to be useful in my future. My experiences also gave me lots of confidence when applying for jobs after graduation.
I would definitely recommend a placement year to everyone!