Careers

Retailing

What career options are available in the meat retailing sector?

The meat retailing sector provides career opportunities in independent butcher shops, supermarket butchers, meat departments, abattoirs and wholesalers. There are approximately 24,000 employees in Australia and around 1,000 new apprentice butchers each year.

As a meat retailer you are trained in selecting, cutting, trimming, preparing and then displaying meat for sale. Butchers are equally dedicated to reducing customers' preparation time by 'value adding' to our meats. When training in meat retailing you will learn about hygiene and sanitation practices, communicating in the workplace, how to sharpen knives, identify species and meat cuts, trimming, plus much more.

Meat retailing can be a career, not just a job

With training and experience you could progress from shop assistant to managing director of your own business.

My name is Ethan. I completed year 10 and then started working in a supermarket. After talking to the butchers, I realised I would like a career as a butcher and started an apprenticeship at Browns Plains in Brisbane. I am currently completing my Certificate III in Meat Processing (Meat Retailing), and my job includes producing cuts of meat for sale and managing stock from the back dock through to the customer's trolley.

This is more than just a job. I am gaining a trade and aim to get promotions in the business - I would like to be a Meat Manager by the time I am 21. I would like to use my trade to travel across the country and eventually would like to be a store manager.

There seems to be endless opportunities in this industry.

Ethan Lewis