My name is Mervyn Pickering and I am a cheese grader and store supervisor working in Dale Farm Ltd.

Last Autumn I enrolled on the new part time BTEC Advanced Award in Dairy Processing Technology at CAFRE, Loughry Campus. I wasn’t sure what the course would involve and I was a bit apprehensive when the word “assessment” was mentioned. However, I had nothing to fear. There were other people on the course from other creameries across Northern Ireland, all in the same boat and the “craic” was great. We all exchanged ideas and experiences and this really helped to bring the theory being taught to life.

Our lecturers were very helpful and assisted us in everyway they could. In my current job I manage the cheese stocks and the module on cost reduction really helped me to think about ways to improve  our processes.

After finishing my BTEC Award I completed a project based on implementing procedures to reduce cheese wastage during the grading process. This allowed me to upgrade my qualification to a BTEC Advanced Certificate The project was a really practical piece of work and helped me to look at ways to save the company money The project took about six weeks to complete and I got help from lecturers at CAFRE, Loughry Campus as well as colleagues at Dale Farm to verify and ensure its practical use in the Creamery.

In June I was invited to Loughry’s Centenary Awards Day and I was delighted to win the “Bob Wilson Challenge Cup” for the best performance in the project on the BTEC Advanced Certificate in Dairy Processing Technology”. I’d certainly encourage anyone to do this course and there’s no need to be worried about the assessments!

Bob Wilson (right) presents the “Bob Wilson Challenge Cup” to Mervyn Pickering, Dale Farm Ltd for achieving the best performance in the project on the BTEC Advanced Certificate in Dairy Processing Technology

Cheese Making at Loughry