My name is Niamh, I’m 24 and from Sligo town. I never thought at this stage in life I'd be doing an apprenticeship, let alone in butchery! I've been working in and out of fast food/delis since I was 16, through school, summers and college. I always found it stressful and fast-paced but enjoyed the adrenaline and good craic with staff. I also just loved working hands on with food. I was only 17 when doing my leaving cert, 16 when I had to sign onto what course I'd like to study. I wasn’t too sure of what I wanted to do, so I signed up for a course in whatever interest I had in school, which was history. I then paired it with Irish, and I thought I could later be a teacher. By 20 COVID and lockdown had started amongst other personal things, and I was reconsidering my future career. I graduated online at 21 and as lockdown ended, I went for the first job I could get that allowed me to move out from my parent's rural home. The first job I got offered was for a deli in a Centra store. I worked extremely hard from the get-go, was very grateful to have a solid income, and felt like my adult life started. After a couple of years working in the deli, particularly in the cooking shift, I realised I had missed working with food. The butcher in the store at the time had several assistants come and go and after two years working there, I offered to give it a go.
For the first few months, I worked between the deli and butcher but because I had a growing interest, I was eventually moved full time to the butchery department under the head butcher. We got on well and the job was simple, I mostly did prep and tray-ed up products. I barely touched a knife at all for the first few months. It slowly developed into me getting Saturday shifts alone, to me covering holidays alone. I soon got more experience with the meat and knife and found myself very keen to learn. The owner of the store thought it a clever idea to develop my interest and offered to sign me onto this apprenticeship. I was a little hesitant because of self-doubt and nerves but knew I absolutely wanted to give it a shot!
There was an opportunity to run the butcher department a few weeks into starting my apprenticeship. Although I thought it was daunting and challenging, I rose to the challenge and am now running the department and counter. With the support of several staff members, and my determination, I adapted, and still am learning. It's a slow process and I need to accept that. I practically now run the counter alone, with help from my colleagues at busy times. I quite enjoy being the main person behind the counter and running the place. It comes with challenges such as meeting sales targets, date rotation etc. but this is all part of my day-to-day role.
I remember being nervous on my first day in the apprenticeship. I was a little worried everyone would know more than me. I also thought that it might be difficult to get on with an all-male class. Neither were the case! There was another girl around my age in the year and it was good to have someone similar to click with. The lads were completely non-judgmental too and I never felt out of place. It took a few weeks of the course for us all to gel, because the groups are small, we all make an effort to chat and have the craic, while also making sure we all understand what's going on.
The first few weeks consisted mostly of IT work, Microsoft etc. this was not expected but I understood that it would come in handy while sending assignments etc. The course then moved into food safety and hygiene, which was interesting. I was surprised at how many elements the course covered, and how deep it went into the food, which was of great interest to me.
A few weeks in we had our first practical class where we broke a pork shoulder. Working in Centra, I'd never really seen a full side of any animal, let alone boned it. Our instructor brought us through it step by step, and it was easy to ask for help from him or other classmates who had more experience. It was stressful as I felt a bit slow or behind, but I knew that I didn’t have as much experience as some, and nobody else made me feel bad for that. When doing something brand new, it can be easy to want to do perfect.
We did forequarters of beef these last few practical classes. Once again, this was something I'd never even seen before! So was really interesting. I also was specifically interested in beef and sample the beef cuts I’d never heard of with new cooking techniques. It was also impressive just by how large it was, and how I barely knew where any cut of meat even came from! This time, our instructor did the practical work step by step, meaning we all were on the same stage. This was less intimidating as I didn't feel rushed or behind and could also ask my classmates for a hand. I was surprised by the size and physicality of some of the practical work but enjoyed it. A lot of meat comes into my work in vacuum bags, so to see it in its full form was very interesting.
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