Kepak Operations Advanced Apprenticeship - England

Overview

Kepak is one of Europe’s leading food companies with manufacturing sites across Ireland and the UK. Kepak’s vision is to be a successful, sustainable, future ready Food Business with differentiation at its core, that is a great place to work. This vision is underpinned by our values of Responsibility, Ambition, Passion for Food & Teamwork.

Our Operations Apprenticeships are designed to give our apprentices a great start to their careers by teaching them the essential skills, knowledge, and behaviours, as well as real job experience, needed to succeed, specifically within our Operational team. To learn and support safe, efficient, and high‑quality operations across Production and Operations. The Operations Apprentice develops essential skills in machinery operation, food safety, health & safety, data analysis, and cross‑functional working.

They contribute to performance improvement by using KPIs, following SOPs, and supporting change and continuous improvement activity within the factory environment.

• Apply site Health & Safety policies (PPE, Lock‑Out/Tag‑Out, guarding) and escalate non‑conformance.
• Follow food‑safety, allergen, hygiene, segregation and GMP requirements at all times.
• Complete documentation accurately, including checklists, traceability records and stock rotation checks
• Operate machinery safely (e.g. bread slicer, UV Tunnel)
• Participate in risk assessments, incident investigations, and internal audits with attention to detail.
• Maintain excellent punctuality, reliability, and personal accountability.
• Escalate issues promptly to the appropriate team (e.g. Engineering, QA, Supervisor).

• Use Excel and KPI dashboards to analyse production data, identify trends, and suggest opportunities for improving efficiency.
• Translate KPIs into daily shift goals and support team performance by reviewing yesterday’s results and updating today’s plan.
• Support continuous‑improvement activity using problem‑solving tools (e.g., 5 Whys) to reduce waste, downtime, or inefficiencies.
• Take ownership of personal development by maintaining an OTJ log, seeking feedback, and completing required qualifications.
• Train across Production, Packaging and Dispatch roles to build broad operational capability and progress toward multiskilling.
• Contribute to the rollout of improvements (e.g. new checklists or processes) and gather feedback data.

• Learn strong awareness of food safety, allergens, segregation and HACCP principles through consistent practical application.
• Support audit readiness by ensuring traceability, hygiene, and documentation standards are met.
• Maintain high product‑quality standards by completing checks accurately and reporting risks immediately.
• Coordinate materials readiness, verifying batch codes, allergen information, stock rotation, and storage requirements.
• Show genuine interest in the production process; learning how factory efficiency links to product quality and customer satisfaction.

• Build positive, respectful relationships within both their own and other team
• Support cross‑functional meetings and contribute clear, relevant updates.
• Participate in start‑of‑shift briefings, sharing key information and checking understanding.
• Assist in task allocation and buddying/training activities, promoting a supportive and inclusive team culture.
• Stay calm under pressure and support colleagues to resolve issues together.

• Career Path:
Apprentices are expected to progress into an Operations role, with opportunities to advance to more senior roles as their career progresses, based on performance.

Our Apprenticeship programme allows dynamic, motivated, hardworking, and passionate people, an opportunity start their career with one of Ireland & UKs leading food businesses. The programme lasts 2 years

Apprenticeship: This role forms part of a structured apprenticeship programme (Level 3 Team Leader). The apprentice will complete formal training (e.g. Food Safety Level 2, COSHH) and maintain an off-the-job (OTJ) training log, working towards the full requirements of the apprenticeship standard.

You can expect:

• To be fully immersed into our…