Information on Lush
Lush is a cosmetics retailer headquartered in Poole, Dorset, United Kingdon. The company was founded by Mark Constantine, a trichologist and Liz Weir, a beauty therapist. They met in a hair and beauty salon in Poole, England. A few years later, they decided to branch out and start their own business selling natural hair and beauty products.
Ryan Campeau is part of the management team at Lush’ Vancouver manufacturing facility. Over the course of his 8-year tenure with Lush, he’s built a career that continually challenges and inspires him.
Ryan joined Lush in 2007 as an entry-level inventory controller in our gift production department. He was instantly captivated by the warmth of his colleagues, the dynamic work environment and the freedom to experiment and grow professionally.
Being keen to take on new challenges, Ryan took a position as a compounder and began making products in our kitchens. Soon, his combined knowledge of inventory control and compounding were put to work when he became a manager of a production department. He’s now supporting a team of managers, helping them grow the business and their careers. His advice for prospective employees? Keep an open mind and be ambitious!
Watch Ryan show us how his team makes Whoosh Shower Jelly
Information on Glasgow Scientific Services
The class will visit Glasgow Scientific Services in February 2016.
Glasgow Scientific Services is a testing laboratory that supports Trading Standards and Environmental Health to protect the public. They also provide a comprehensive serve to our service departments.
They are UKAS accredited to ISO 17025 ensuring the highest quality results. The laboratories main areas of expertise are in chemical and microbiological testing of food, water, consumer products and environmental monitoring.
Providing scientific support to roughly half of Scotland, Glasgow Scientific Services (GSS) is the biggest local authority laboratory in the UK. While not working solely in the food and drink industry, the service’s resources and skills in microbiological testing, and in gauging food quality and safety, are in high demand.
GSS has a very wide remit and works with the private business sector, other local authorities and local government departments such as Trading Standards and 
Environmental Health. Analytical work covers contaminants, composition, substitution and labelling; while microbiological testing focuses on water and food quality with samples routinely tested including ready-to-eat foods, shellfish, dairy products and drinking water.
GSS are strong advocates for links between school and industry. As Gary Walker, Manager at GSS said: “We believe that it is important to support young people and give them us much information as possible so they can then make an informed career choice. A Future in Food links in with the Curriculum for Excellence and, for us, that means not just science but also other areas such as report writing, presentation skills, thinking on your feet, numeracy and a host of other skills that are required in the real-life workplace.”
You can find out about the tasks you might do if you work for GSS by clicking HERE
Food Careers Not Always in Obvious Places
The food and drink industry is not as well understood as most industry sectors, so exciting careers are often found in unexpected places. For instance, have you thought about who responds to complaints from the general public about misleading food labels, ‘watered down’ pub drinks, suspected food poisoning cases or, even, bad smells and odours?
Glasgow Scientific Services (GSS) is located in a quiet residential part of Springburn. As Gary Walker, Manager at GSS explains: ““We apply a whole range of science yet people don’t really know who we are, where we are or what we do. There does tend to be an air of mystery surrounding us but really we’re just scientists doing our best to protect the public.”
“In any year, we are handling up to 35,000 samples which can create up to one million results – that’s a huge workload for what is a relatively small team of just 50 people here in Glasgow.”
Information on Mentholatum
The class visited Mentholatum in East Kilbride in November 2015 with Mrs Kennedy.
You can find out further information about Mentholatum UK headquarters HERE or visit their global site HERE
