Sophie is currently completing her Level 3 Team Leader / Supervisor apprenticeship. Sophie works for Kenwood as a Recipe & Food Content Creation Manager
Kenwood are the UKs Leading brand in food mixers, food processors, & breakfast, building products that stand the test of time since 1947.
We met with Sophie to find out her thoughts and opinions on her Apprenticeship so far:
What led you to start your apprenticeship?
I was promoted to become a Team Leader with no prior management experience and felt that I needed to have some management training to develop the necessary skills for my new role.
What would a typical day for you be?
I am a Recipe & Food Content Creation Manager within the Consumer Culinary Experience Team at Kenwood UK. My role is to lead the team of Recipe Content Creators to support the recipe content creation for Kenwood.
My role is varied so no two days are the same, sometimes we are working as a team on food photography shoots, or collaborating on the yearly content plan which involves workshopping recipe ideas for seasonal or country specific markets or working in the kitchen developing recipes for various products. I work cross functionally with a variety of teams including new product development, engineering, the communications team and the UK Sales team. I am often involved in meetings during the day too, so it's a balancing act of practical/technical vs office-based tasks.
Tell us about your experience as an apprentice…
I am learning so much more than I would have learnt if I had been simply sent on a one day training course. The apprenticeship is a lot of work, but I do think it is helping me to be the best manager for my team and that's really important to me.
What do you enjoy most about doing an apprenticeship?
The full day training sessions are full of great content and the trainers are interesting and engaging. The support from Lily, my learning and development coach has really helped me.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
In the next 5 years, my long-term ambition would be to run my own business / social enterprise.
What is the best bit of advice you could give to someone who is considering an apprenticeship?
A piece of advice I would give someone considering an apprenticeship is to talk to someone who has completed or is doing an apprenticeship to find out what it involves.
How has an apprenticeship helped you progress within your role and company?
My main objectives within my new role have been to motivate and support my team, to promote their work and ensure it is fully utilised by the brand and to grow the skills of the people in my team to continuously improve the quality of the recipe content. I think the apprenticeship has really helped me to understand how I can achieve all of those things. I've made a really positive start, and my team are happy and working well together. The apprenticeship is giving me confidence, developing my communication skills and it has also helped improve my time management and prioritisation skills.