Kirsty distils her love for whisky
LOVE food and drink? If you have a real appetite for them, you could have found your perfect career.
Kirsty Dagnan, 33, found her thirst for knowledge helped to put her on the right career path and she now manages the Glen Ord distillery, maltings, visitor centre and engineering centre and the Teaninich distillery, Alness, Ross-shire.
‘I always had a passion for whisky and Scotland, and many of my family worked in distilleries,’ she says. ‘So after my analytical chemistry degree, I applied for the Diageo graduate scheme with the aim of being a distillery manager.
‘The traditional ingredients used in making whisky cannot be changed, but I like the challenge of combining traditional methods and centuries-old craft with innovation to make the process more sustainable, such as using heat from water used in distilling to dry barley in the maltings.
‘My degree was useful in getting into the business, and the graduate scheme taught me a lot about the manufacturing processes of a range of drinks, plus management, operations and logistics.’
David Cutter, president of global supply and procurement at Diageo says: ‘Our workforce encompasses a range of backgrounds, as well as an increasing number of women.
‘By September, we will have 60 graduates across our supply operations in Europe in distillation and maturation, brewing, packaging and engineering, and we also run an apprenticeship programme.’ (See diageo.careers.com) A survey by the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) found that 96 per cent of Scotch companies provide training to employees, 87 per cent take on graduates and 39 per cent apprentices.
Valuable qualifications for entrants include the BSc and MSc courses offered by the International Centre for Brewing and Distilling at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh (icbd.hw.ac.uk), which also offers distance learning courses, and the Spirits Industry Vocational Qualifications offered by members of the SWA, which also lists employers. (scotch. whisky.org.uk)
Across the wider food and drink sector, the Food and Drink Federation says that 109,000 new recruits are needed by 2022. Engineers are in particular demand. See tastycareers.org.uk.