News

A Grand Day Out

The L6 Applied Business and ICT groups have recently taken part in industrial visits to Vion Foods in Deeside and Porsche Centre Chester.

Vion Foods in Deeside, produces pizzas for a number of supermarket groups throughout the country. The welcoming team provided us with drinks and croissants on arrival, which the pupils particularly enjoyed. The first part of the visit was a presentation about the business, given by the Operations Manager in the board room. This was very thorough, covering the main functional areas and some topics of particular interest to the group.

The group was then divided into four smaller groups for a guided tour of the factory floor. Before entering the controlled factory environment, each member of the group was given white wellington boots, a white overall and a hairnet. This sight caused much amusement. The Health and Safety procedures are paramount. This was the first experience most of the pupils had had of a factory and it proved to be very enlightening and informative.

A week later the group were at Porsche Centre in Chester. This was a very different experience for the pupils as the business is in the service sector and the emphasis of the business was particularly on the exceptional customer service. Following a presentation by the Operations Manager and tour of the site, the pupils were encouraged to sit in each of the wide range of cars on view in the showroom. The boys particularly enjoyed this part of the visit and quite a few photographs were taken!

As part of their examination course, the pupils require first hand experience of businesses and so such visits are a vital part of the course. We particularly appreciate the time and effort given by companies to satisfy this need.

Mrs. P. Selby