Retail Meat Processing Apprenticeship
Kamloops, Canada
Course
DURATION
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2026
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
About: The Retail Meat Processing Apprenticeship at Thompson Rivers University trains students in productivity and business aspects of retail meatcutting. It covers cutting accuracy, knife handling, portion control, merchandising and full-product utilization. The programme stresses safety, sanitation, punctuality and personal appearance. An industry advisory committee guides curriculum relevance. The programme has 13 courses with theory and practical components; practical sessions run Monday to Thursday and theory and evaluation on Friday mornings. Students take notes, study manuals and follow an industry dress code Monday to Thursday; Friday allows informal but tidy dress.
Career Outcomes: Retail butcher, meat cutter, supervisor and buyer.
The program Retail Meat Processing Apprenticeship focuses on productivity training and the business factors of the meatcutting industry. There is specialized training in the accuracy of cutting, knife handling, portion control, merchandising and the utilization of all products. Safety, sanitation, punctuality and personal appearance are stressed throughout.
An advisory committee with broad representation from the meatcutting industry ensures that the program maintains relevance to provincial and local industry needs and standards.
Program design and activities
The program consists of 13 courses, many of which consist of both a theory and practical component. Practical work is carried out from Monday to Thursday, with theory work and evaluation on Friday morning. You will be required to take notes in class and study the manual and supplementary handouts. The schedule of work in the practical sessions and the theory sessions is subject to change depending on production requirements and the instructor's sense of class progress. The dress code is based on industry practices and requires all students to wear clean shirts and ties, black slacks and black shoes (no runners), and women wear clean blouses. The code is in effect Monday through Thursday. Informal but clean and tidy dress is appropriate on Friday.
