U.K.-based Village Bakery collaborates with local universities and trade schools in North Wales specializing in food manufacturing to train bakers and engineers as a part its apprenticeship programs.

To retain staff, an increasing number of bakeries are investing in new employees hoping that they consider working at the company not as a job, but as part of a career.

To accomplish this, U.K.-based Village Bakery collaborates with local universities and trade schools in North Wales specializing in food manufacturing to train bakers and engineers as a part its apprenticeship programs. Bakery apprentices learn the fundamentals of baking, train with a tutor one day a week and spend the rest of their time getting hands-on experience in the bakery. Apprentice engineers work alongside experienced engineers to learn the latest in process and technology. Currently, the company has 14 apprentices in bakery training. It hopes to have more in the future.

Today’s apprentices are the supervisors and leaders of tomorrow, according to the company. As part of the qualification process, candidates are asked to send in a recipe and describe how the product fits their personalities.

“We also want to figure out if they’re the type of people we’re after,” said Christien Jones, projects director for the family-owned bakery. “They have to have the right qualifications. They have to be ‘Village people.’”

Find out more about Village Bakery in the June issue ofBaking & Snackmagazine. It’s part of our iba 2015 bakery tour series leading up to the big international show, which will run Sept. 12-17, in Munich, Germany