A group of youngsters who started out at Kilchoan Primary School have been scoping out career opportunities. Local businessman and farmer Donald Houston took them on a tour of some modern sustainable businesses. Here is the story in their own words.
We already knew about Ardnamurchan Distillery because of a scheme devised some years ago by the Ardnamurchan Trust, where each of us was allocated a cask of whisky.
Profits from the eventual sale can be used to help finance our chosen career path when we leave school.
Now we had the chance to go on a careers visit to Ardnamurchan Distillery and associated businesses.
The distillery focuses on sustainability and is aware of its impact on the environment. It is one of the first in Scotland to operate in this way.
The various by-products from the whisky-making process, such as the draff and pot ale, are re-used.
The draff is processed and fed to cows in Ardnamurchan and the pot ale is either evaporated in a partial vacuum, using power generated from a combined heat and power plant with wood as its fuel source, and fed to local cattle or is sent in its raw state to Celtic Renewables in Grangemouth.
It was clear from our tour of the distillery that it has a tight-knit, friendly team which works extremely well together.
We were shown the intricate stacking in the warehouses and learned more about the different casks that infused the whisky with flavours and the different blends they create.
We also learned about the fermentation process involved in creating whisky.
Having witnessed first-hand some of the local circular economy benefits of Ardnamurchan Distillery, we were then introduced to the collaborative opportunities back down the supply chain in Scotland.
The distillery contracts 65 per cent of its barley directly with Broomhall Farm in West Fife allowing added value from the eventual whisky to go back into additional bio-diversity projects there.
Johnny Watson from Watson Seeds discussed the merits of Scotland’s growing climate, the seed varieties constantly being cultivated and trialled and natural nutrients afforded by winter cover crops.
He also gave examples of career paths in the agriculture and agronomy industries.
The next day we were met at the Adelphi distillery offices in Fife by the managing director Alex Bruce.
Here we learned about various job opportunities in marketing and sales, as well as different paths to break into the industry.
We were lucky enough to see the entire production line here, from bottling to labelling and packing. Its bottles are made from 70 per cent recycled glass, yet another way it strives to be sustainable.
The last stop on our trip was an eye-opening visit to Celtic Renewables. It uses the pot ale along with microbial fermentation to ultimately produce high quality solvents, including butanol, ethanol and acetone.
Celtic Renewables is an exciting company at the forefront of efforts to make green energy from what would otherwise, in many cases, be wasted by-product.
This experience provided by the Ardnamurchan Trust was invaluable to us as it showed us so many career opportunities we never knew existed.
It opened our eyes to the work that goes into distilling and the various industries that make it a more sustainable process.
We felt inspired when listening to the many presentations by the amazing staff at the organisations we visited.
We hope this experience will continue to be available for the next group of beneficiaries of the trust programme.
Thank you to Ardnamurchan Trust for providing us with the chance to learn more about this fascinating sector.
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