1 month down

 

Hi everyone,

Shannon from fourth year here. This is my first blog entry. I am just over 1 month into my work placement.

When choosing my work placement, it had to be somewhere commutable and because of this I felt there was a strong possibility that I wouldn’t get the best experience as I was restricted.

I couldn’t have been any more wrong. I am working in Savages Bakery, a family run bakery just across the border. The bakery was set up about 30 years ago and has continuously expanded ever since, originally just selling a handful of baked goods to now having a full hot and cold delicatessen, full baked good range, celebration cakes, on-site eatery and supply retailers throughout Northern Ireland and some parts of the republic. 

The thing I absolutely love so far about my placement is because it’s a family run business and a relatively small work team, is that everyone works together and learns from each other. There is an amazing work atmosphere. Since I am only here for a short time, I feel that the other bakers and the owners understand I want to gain the experience and knowledge to benefit the rest of my career and they’re willing to show me anything I ask or anything they believe would be of interest. 

A general day for me involves a lot of coffee after an almost 4 hour commute in total, decorating  and filling hundreds of donuts, pastries, buns and celebrations cakes, packaging the baked goods, preparing mixes and shaping and baking breads. 

I definitely prefer to decorating side of things over the actual baking. For me personally, it’s just very labour intensive and does not bring as much enjoyment. I am surprised by this as I thought the baking route was for me but I love the decorating side of it all.

I feel like I’m also getting a good insight into the business element of it all as I have a good relationship with the owner and his daughter Shannon who has a business degree. She had recently started within the business within the last year and has brought the business forward in terms of profitability, minimising waste and expanding the product range with retailers. 

I mainly work alongside about 3/4 male bakers all of which have about 20+ years of experience which is fantastic for me as I really feel like I’m gaining so much knowledge from them.

Anyways, that’s all for now. I will check in again in a few weeks! :)

Shannon