News

MDS and Covid-19 Update

March 20, 2020

MDS is currently operating as usual. We are in constant contact with all of our members and trainees and plans have been put in place to ensure that training and secondments take place as planned.

We are accepting applications as normal and the first stages of the process are unaffected. For those applicants that are invited to assessment days , these will be held virtually. Successful applicants will receive details of this in due course.

We are aware that many graduates or current students may have had to cancel plans to travel over the summer. You may therefore be looking for temporary or seasonal work instead. We are teaming up with a number of our members to promote seasonal working opportunities  and besides a method of earning over the summer many of these positions offer opportunities to work outside, learn new skills and in some cases accommodation is provided. Why don’t you use your summer to make new friends and gain an insight into the agricultural industry. Please have a look on our vacancies page for more details.

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Trainee Awards

February 13, 2020

We are always looking for ways to celebrate the success of our trainees. As such, we recently decided to put forward three trainees for the Target National Graduate Recruitment Awards. After much deliberation we identified 13 trainees that we felt had really stood out due to their achievements during their secondments, their involvement during training days and their representation of MDS. Our initial selection of trainees included:

  • Ellie Churchill
  • Krystian Wisniewski
  • Clare Powell-Tuck
  • Danielle Grootes
  • Larissa Keyte
  • Catherine Russell
  • Robert Ward
  • Hayley Wilson
  • Alexandros Benakis
  • Harriet Duxburry
  • John Gonzales
  • Gwenaelle Mateos
  • Paivi Pirhonen

After the trainees had submitted evidence of their achievements, and with much deliberation, we put Alexandros Benakis forward for the Rising Star award and Ellie Churchill and Clare Powel-Tuck forward for Apprentice of The Year. We are delighted to announce that Alexandros made it onto the final shortlist in his category. We would like to congratulate Alexandros and all the other trainees, and we look forward to receiving the final results in April. Alexandros was also recently awarded the Doug Henderson award.

We are now eligible to be considered for the Graduate Employer of the Year Award. Part of the submission requirements for this award are that current trainees and Alumni complete a questionnaire about their experiences on the programme. If you feel you would like to help us with our submission, please follow the link below. This will be an amazing opportunity for us to be recognised for all the hard work our members, trainees and the MDS team put into the graduate scheme and how we are developing the future leaders of the Food and Fresh Produce Industry.

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/geoty20grad

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Celebrating 50 member companies!

October 2, 2019

We are very excited to announce that we now have 50 MDS member companies!  We have come a long way since MDS was established in 1986 by G’s, Greens of Soham and QV Foods (now known as AH Worth).

Over the summer we have had 7 new members join us, all of whom will be taking on their first trainee during the upcoming winter secondment period. We would like to welcome Corteva, The James Hutton Institute, JDM Food Group Ltd, Scottish Agronomy Ltd, Morrisons Ltd, NIAB and Greencell Ltd to MDS. We look forward to continuing our growth as we work in co-operation with all of our members to provide a graduate scheme like no other.

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MDS Open Morning 26th September

August 22, 2019

Here at MDS we are very aware of the difficulties involved in hiring and developing the right people to become the future leaders within the food and fresh produce industry. At MDS we recruit the highest calibre graduates, give them experience and training, so that they can go on to benefit our member companies.

We will be hosting an open morning on Thursday the 26th of September in Peterborough. During the morning there will be the opportunity to meet with some of our members and trainees to discuss how MDS has helped them to recruit for the future of their businesses. Please click here for further details MDS Open Breakfast Invite

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We are proud to support Agrespect

October 25, 2018

MDS are delighted to announce that they have signed the Agrespect pledge, promoting diversity in farming communities.

“We stand against prejudice and support rural LGBTQ+ diversity, inclusion and enablement”

We fully support Agrespect’s mission and belief that people live their best lives when they live authentically. Agrespect aims to promote diversity in rural communities and to share LGBTQ+ people’s stories, to demonstrate that being different should be celebrated and should not be a barrier to living and working in the countryside.

MDS works to supply food and fresh produce industry with young talent and we are proud to recruit graduates from a variety of backgrounds to increase diversity in the industry; those originally from a farming background as well as city-dwellers, varying ethnicities, religions, sexualities and academic backgrounds. We are therefore actively working with the belief that the industry needs diversity to continue to grow, and in today’s very challenging environment makes this need even more urgent.

To find out more about Agrespect, including other organisations that have signed the pledge, visit: https://agrespect.com/.

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MDS Training Programme Becomes Apprenticeship

August 16, 2018

There has never been a more exciting time to get involved in MDS. Over the last two years, MDS has been working to increase the number of trainees it recruits, as well as to fine tune its training programme, ensuring that trainees receive an accredited qualification at the end of the two year programme. To this end, MDS has forged a partnership with Quantet Group to convert the programme into an apprenticeship, providing a more attractive offering to trainees and members alike.

We are pleased to announce that from the autumn, the training programme will become a Level 5 Leadership and Management apprenticeship, accredited by the Chartered Management Institute. The additional benefit of this is that MDS members will be able to put their own staff through the MDS training programme using their levy.

The changes will also enable MDS to fund trainees’ off the job training either by members passing down up to 10% of their unused levy or by co-government funding. This will ensure that costs for training MDS trainees are kept to a minimum.

The programme is exclusive to MDS and its members and is ideal for employees showing leadership potential. The partnership between MDS and the Quantet Group has gone a step further than the minimum standard for this qualification, as the programme covers both the requirements for the Level 5 Operations/Departmental Apprenticeship Standard plus five additional sessions to deliver skills specifically for the food & fresh produce sector. This would usually only be offered at a significant additional cost above the levy, but MDS together with Quantet can offer this programme inclusive of all the additional courses within the set levy fee.

The cost of the 2 year training programme is £9,000. However, members with funds in their levy can use this to fund training for their own employees. Those members who have used their levy or who are not levy payers can still access the training as Quantet can access 90% of costs through government funding. The fee to these members for the 2 year programme would therefore be just £900.

The next programme will start in October 2018. Please contact info@mds-ltd.co.uk if you have employees who would benefit from developing their management skills and you would like to put them on the training programme.

We look forward to receiving your enquiries and to developing the potential for collaborative training.

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Would you like to work for MDS?

June 26, 2018

We have an opportunity to join the MDS team as Development Manager.

This is an exciting opportunity for an individual, committed to driving improvements with the ability to support all levels of staff to meet the agreed standards. Reporting to the Chief Operating Officer you will ensure that members, trainees and training providers are competent to meet current and future requirements. To achieve this, you will review training and development plans, manage training systems and prepare learning and development material to deliver a successful training strategy as well as an ability to improve business practice.

For more information please contact saffy@mds-ltd.co.uk

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Open Day – Dundee

June 25, 2018

We will be holding an Open Day in Dundee on 12 July, in order to celebrate the work MDS has been doing for over 30 years to bring young talent into the food and fresh produce industry.

Speakers will include MDS chair Christine Tacon, John Gray from member company Angus Soft Fruits and two MDS Alumni, Stephanie Brown from Protolan and James Nielson from Greenyard Fresh.

If you’d like to find out more about MDS we’d love to see you there.

RSVP anna@mds-ltd.co.uk

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