Thinking of moving to England

[Blinger]

Oh hi guys,
Without sounding too formal, I am a twenty one year old Aussie who is about to finish his apprenticeship and fairly keen to explore more of the world! So for this reason I wanna move or at least live in London for a while (1 year +). The thing is, I'm a baker by trade (specialising in bread) and I have no idea where I would even start to look for a job over there. Are there any big chains (I just read about Greggs - are they good?).
I have limited knowledge about cakes and **** like that but am defs gonna expand that section.



So yeah, quizzicle, what part of England/London would be a good place to move to?
I know London is expensive, I fell in love with it when I went there 1 year ago. I've only been around the city (I stayed near Russell Square I think).
I saw Sainsbury's and Tesco had fresh a bread section, is that baked in store or at a factory and delivered everyday?
How easy would it be for a migrant to get a working visa over there?

Hmm, not sure what else I should ask or if you guys would even know the answer!
bolt660 / Martin - I know you did work as a "baker"...

[Cerys]

Most large shops, like tesco and sainsburys bake all of their bread etc in store. if you wanted to work in a proper bakery, greggs is the best place to look for.
They have shops up and down the country. Imo the food is really nice there :3
In greggs you could also start getting more experience of baking cakes and pizzas etc.

I'm not too sure about the best place to go, and the visa, sorry!

imo though, probably moving to the surrounding villages of london would be better as I think houses are cheaper there. Not too sure though :P

Good luck when you finally do move!!

[beth]

i wouldn't move over at the moment, unemployment is at a height and i don't think it'd be that easy to find work in the capital even with yr qualifications.

i mean, probably the best idea for you would be start yr own bakery somewhere. greggs isn't a "bakers" as such, the food is made in batch in factories and then the staff put it into the oven, it's just fast food really.

[Cerys]

probably the best idea for you would be start yr own bakery somewhere. greggs isn't a "bakers" as such, the food is made in batch in factories and then the staff put it into the oven, it's just fast food really.

Yeah, starting a bakery would be a good idea.

+ I'm not sure about down in London, but the greggs near me make all of their products from scratch in the bakery.

Obviously where you live, it might be different :P

[Robbie]

move to oldham with me

[Blinger]

Starting my own bakery is my goal in the end, but financially at under 25 and moving to an entirely new country? Extremely unlikely!

I said London because I enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city, I like the fact there are clubs and young people around..id be fine with living somewhere smaller but not where there are only 100 people in a town! Lol. Is unemployment low everywhere?

The Gregg's website did look a bit like a factory setting, what are the big chains over there? Here they are Brumbies and Bakers Delight! Do tesco and sainsbury's enploy fulltime bakers?

[Blinger]

move to oldham with me

Become a software engineer with you and we can start our own habbz?

[beth]

Starting my own bakery is my goal in the end, but financially at under 25 and moving to an entirely new country? Extremely unlikely!

I said London because I enjoy the hustle and bustle of the city, I like the fact there are clubs and young people around..id be fine with living somewhere smaller but not where there are only 100 people in a town! Lol. Is unemployment low everywhere?

The Gregg's website did look a bit like a factory setting, what are the big chains over there? Here they are Brumbies and Bakers Delight! Do tesco and sainsbury's enploy fulltime bakers?

i'm not really sure about baking but i did do food production GCSE at school, and i think the majority of the big supermarkets are all baked at factory level and reheated in store. greggs is definitely like that.

we don't really have any "big" baker brands, i suppose you have the big bread brand which is warburtons/hovis/kingsmill but they're all factory jobs too.

i think you'd be surprised at how easy it would be to start yr own bakery. whilst unemployment is high the british government are promoting entrepreneurship (hope i spelt that right) and there's so many different grants for someone to do these things. i know the job centre (the big uk centre for the unemployed) offers a £5000 no payback grant to help and there's all sorts of initiatives.

i think what might be best for you if you do come here (even though i'd recommend against it now and wait 4/5 years) is to get yrself enrolled upon a british vocational qualification in baking or something related and then you'd learn how to get straight into industry over here.

[Misawa]

Supermarkets throw frozen ingredients into an oven, the same as Greggs. Only proper bakers are the struggling independents.

[Jordy]

How on earth is he supposed to afford the rent and start-up to open a bakery in London? The deposit alone to begin renting a shop in London would be very expensive. It's a ridiculous idea not to mention tax incentives, benefits etc won't be available to non-UK Residents.

First of all I'd suggest you don't move to a town or city in the UK which is London or further South of it, typically everything in these regions is inflated so it's not an ideal place to begin. If I'm completely honest, things in the UK are generally cheaper the further North you go. There's plenty of great cities north of London. Birmingham and Manchester are both very large and other cities I'd consider are Cardiff, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh.

I'd look online to see how easy it would be to get a visa to work and live over here for a few years, that shouldn't be too difficult to do (I assume as a member of the Commonwealth it shouldn't be that difficult?). Then again you need to consider that a UK baker moving to Australia probably wouldn't be accepted as it's not a career there's much demand for in Australia I believe, it probably works the opposite way too, you'll be able to find online if the skills of a baker are something the UK requires.

My final suggestion would be to visit the UK and see the cities I've suggested and look into how feasible it is to get a job over here, obviously you can look at Greggs the bakery online and I'd also look at the "big five" supermarkets (Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury, Morrisons and Waitrose) and perhaps Pret a manger too. When you're in the UK you could find independent bakeries and see if they'd be interested in you working for them and build up some contacts (which you will definitely need).

[beth]

How on earth is he supposed to afford the rent and start-up to open a bakery in London? The deposit alone to begin renting a shop in London would be very expensive. It's a ridiculous idea not to mention tax incentives, benefits etc won't be available to non-UK Residents.


was talking general uk terms as i live in birmingham and there are so many EMPTY shops they will literally give them to you.

[Catchy]

To move to London you'd have to be VERY financially stable... Plus what Bethie said, unemployment is high and it's so competitive for just about everything

[jasey]

There's plenty of great cities north of London. Birmingham and Manchester are both very large and other cities I'd consider are Cardiff, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh.


I am not British so I can't offer great advice to the original poster but I can say that if I was to move to the United Kingdom I would definitely live in Wales. I hear so many lovely things about Cardiff and Swansea - I think a baker would be right at home there! It is an animal paradise land, too, if you like animals. I see Duffy's music videos shot in Wales and it looks like you could start up your own bakery on one of the lovely streets in Cardiff and it would fit right in. I don't know - this post seems silly now that I've wrote it but I would definitely take Jordy's advice and consider a city outside of London.

[Rozi]

There aren't any sort of middle range baker chains in england, but there are higher end ones which are bakeries/patisseries.

http://www.paul-uk.com/content/job-opportunities.php is a good one and http://www.jobsinretail-london.co.uk/

[Blinger]

Supermarkets throw frozen ingredients into an oven, the same as Greggs. Only proper bakers are the struggling independents.
I try not to be rude and all that ****, and I don't disagree with you normally, but that just sounds like utter ********! It's like saying all fighting scenes in a film are CGI. Yeast needs to be active (i.e. room temperature at least?) to bake off properly! And the dough.. you can't just chuck frozen **** into an oven!


First of all I'd suggest you don't move to a town or city in the UK which is London or further South of it, typically everything in these regions is inflated so it's not an ideal place to begin. If I'm completely honest, things in the UK are generally cheaper the further North you go. There's plenty of great cities north of London. Birmingham and Manchester are both very large and other cities I'd consider are Cardiff, Sheffield, Leeds, Nottingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh.
I'd be more than happy to move to a smaller city, I just like the idea of living IN a city with some hustle and bustle, I don't wanna be out in the country where you see one truck and 3 sheep walk past in 24 hours.. I also don't want to live in a city like Perth which is backwards (as in shops are closed on Sundays and shut after 5pm), and Darwin which there is nothing to do! In terms of Australia, I consider London to be like Melbourne or Sydney, and Manchester/Liverpool/Birmingham etc to be like Brisbane and Adelaide.
Thinking about it, Edinburgh would be nice too, I fell in love with that joint as well, amazing scenery


I'd look online to see how easy it would be to get a visa to work and live over here for a few years, that shouldn't be too difficult to do (I assume as a member of the Commonwealth it shouldn't be that difficult?). Then again you need to consider that a UK baker moving to Australia probably wouldn't be accepted as it's not a career there's much demand for in Australia I believe, it probably works the opposite way too, you'll be able to find online if the skills of a baker are something the UK requires.
Heh, funnily enough, before I moved out of my rental property, we had 2 English blokes move in who are tree-loppers, they had an agency organize everything for them so I think all they had to pay for was their airfares. Maybe there is something like that here?
Also bakers are "in demand" apparently, at least that's what our government thinks :s


My final suggestion would be to visit the UK and see the cities I've suggested and look into how feasible it is to get a job over here, obviously you can look at Greggs the bakery online and I'd also look at the "big five" supermarkets (Tesco, ASDA, Sainsbury, Morrisons and Waitrose) and perhaps Pret a manger too. When you're in the UK you could find independent bakeries and see if they'd be interested in you working for them and build up some contacts (which you will definitely need).
What's "Pret"? My idea would be to save up 5k pounds (or $10k AUD) and buy a return ticket for a 2 month holiday, but hopefully delay that for at least 1 year if I do find a job.



i'm not really sure about baking but i did do food production GCSE at school, and i think the majority of the big supermarkets are all baked at factory level and reheated in store. greggs is definitely like that.

we don't really have any "big" baker brands, i suppose you have the big bread brand which is warburtons/hovis/kingsmill but they're all factory jobs too.

i think you'd be surprised at how easy it would be to start yr own bakery. whilst unemployment is high the british government are promoting entrepreneurship (hope i spelt that right) and there's so many different grants for someone to do these things. i know the job centre (the big uk centre for the unemployed) offers a £5000 no payback grant to help and there's all sorts of initiatives.

i think what might be best for you if you do come here (even though i'd recommend against it now and wait 4/5 years) is to get yrself enrolled upon a british vocational qualification in baking or something related and then you'd learn how to get straight into industry over here.
Thanking you! I don't want a factory job, I want hands on stuff! I've heard stories where a factory produced loaf of bread takes 1-2 minutes to mix, whereas any smaller bakery mixes a loaf for I'd say minimum 10 minutes :P
My own bakery is defs outta the equation right now, I would have no chance saving up say 50 thousand GBP on my wage, especially since I'm only 21!



I'd love more suggestions too, guys! :D

[Robbie]

were any of your grandparents born in the uk?
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/uk-ancestry/

read through http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/

[Blinger]

were any of your grandparents born in the uk?
http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/uk-ancestry/

read through http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/visas-immigration/working/

Ich bin Swiss. Both grandparents are swiss, actually, I'm first gen aussie so I hold a swiss passport too! (Dual citizen)

[Misawa]

I try not to be rude and all that ****, and I don't disagree with you normally, but that just sounds like utter ********! It's like saying all fighting scenes in a film are CGI. Yeast needs to be active (i.e. room temperature at least?) to bake off properly! And the dough.. you can't just chuck frozen **** into an oven!


I'd be more than happy to move to a smaller city, I just like the idea of living IN a city with some hustle and bustle, I don't wanna be out in the country where you see one truck and 3 sheep walk past in 24 hours.. I also don't want to live in a city like Perth which is backwards (as in shops are closed on Sundays and shut after 5pm), and Darwin which there is nothing to do! In terms of Australia, I consider London to be like Melbourne or Sydney, and Manchester/Liverpool/Birmingham etc to be like Brisbane and Adelaide.
Thinking about it, Edinburgh would be nice too, I fell in love with that joint as well, amazing scenery


Heh, funnily enough, before I moved out of my rental property, we had 2 English blokes move in who are tree-loppers, they had an agency organize everything for them so I think all they had to pay for was their airfares. Maybe there is something like that here?
Also bakers are "in demand" apparently, at least that's what our government thinks :s


What's "Pret"? My idea would be to save up 5k pounds (or $10k AUD) and buy a return ticket for a 2 month holiday, but hopefully delay that for at least 1 year if I do find a job.



Thanking you! I don't want a factory job, I want hands on stuff! I've heard stories where a factory produced loaf of bread takes 1-2 minutes to mix, whereas any smaller bakery mixes a loaf for I'd say minimum 10 minutes :P
My own bakery is defs outta the equation right now, I would have no chance saving up say 50 thousand GBP on my wage, especially since I'm only 21!



I'd love more suggestions too, guys! :D

Pastries, etc, they're all frozen and brought into the in-supermarket bakeries. All the British supermarkets - Tesco, Sainsburys, etc - do it. None of their bakery goods are made in store.

[cocaine]

unemployment is at a record high atm, i wouldn't move here until at least a year or two

or u culd claim benefits from our lovely gvnt!!

[FlyingJesus]

None of their bakery goods are made in store.

...except for the ones that are

Seriously even some little Tesco Express stores have on-site bakeries where they can do fresh produce

[Blinger]

unemployment is at a record high atm, i wouldn't move here until at least a year or two

or u culd claim benefits from our lovely gvnt!!

I plan on moving in with the queen!
Misawa, you can't bake frozen stuff! A lot of shops here buy in the frozen pastries (plain squares so you can add your own toppings, croissants etc), you still need to let it prove up!

[Deeb]

Up north is a better bet than London tbh!

[Recursion]

I'd stay as far from the UK as possible, lol. Unemployment is high, no political parties around here are stable or have any idea what they're doing, we rely on Russia for our gas, our economy is ******/getting ****** and we have a worsening energy problem because the greenies don't want nuclear power.

Graduates with Masters degrees around here are struggling to get jobs, stay in Aussie :P

[Jordy]

I try not to be rude and all that ****, and I don't disagree with you normally, but that just sounds like utter ********! It's like saying all fighting scenes in a film are CGI. Yeast needs to be active (i.e. room temperature at least?) to bake off properly! And the dough.. you can't just chuck frozen **** into an oven!


I'd be more than happy to move to a smaller city, I just like the idea of living IN a city with some hustle and bustle, I don't wanna be out in the country where you see one truck and 3 sheep walk past in 24 hours.. I also don't want to live in a city like Perth which is backwards (as in shops are closed on Sundays and shut after 5pm), and Darwin which there is nothing to do! In terms of Australia, I consider London to be like Melbourne or Sydney, and Manchester/Liverpool/Birmingham etc to be like Brisbane and Adelaide.
Thinking about it, Edinburgh would be nice too, I fell in love with that joint as well, amazing scenery


Heh, funnily enough, before I moved out of my rental property, we had 2 English blokes move in who are tree-loppers, they had an agency organize everything for them so I think all they had to pay for was their airfares. Maybe there is something like that here?
Also bakers are "in demand" apparently, at least that's what our government thinks :s


What's "Pret"? My idea would be to save up 5k pounds (or $10k AUD) and buy a return ticket for a 2 month holiday, but hopefully delay that for at least 1 year if I do find a job.



Thanking you! I don't want a factory job, I want hands on stuff! I've heard stories where a factory produced loaf of bread takes 1-2 minutes to mix, whereas any smaller bakery mixes a loaf for I'd say minimum 10 minutes :P
My own bakery is defs outta the equation right now, I would have no chance saving up say 50 thousand GBP on my wage, especially since I'm only 21!



I'd love more suggestions too, guys! :DNo problem :) - Pret a manger is a big bakery chain in the UK (Sandwiches etc too), can be found in most cities and quite a bit more expensive than the likes of Greggs. Just had a look online and the pay is pretty decent (£7.25 per hour in London which would be enough to live on in London, you won't make your fortune there but living and working in London would be a fantastic experience). Another little known fact is it's owned by McDonalds.

http://www.pret.com/

Might be something worth looking into. And of course look into visa requirements and agencies online to live and work in the UK, bit of Googling and you'll be there :-)

[Blinger]

No problem :) - Pret a manger is a big bakery chain in the UK (Sandwiches etc too), can be found in most cities and quite a bit more expensive than the likes of Greggs. Just had a look online and the pay is pretty decent (£7.25 per hour in London which would be enough to live on in London, you won't make your fortune there but living and working in London would be a fantastic experience). Another little known fact is it's owned by McDonalds.

http://www.pret.com/

Might be something worth looking into. And of course look into visa requirements and agencies online to live and work in the UK, bit of Googling and you'll be there :-)

Ahh awesome!! I'ma chat to dad about dad about this and see what he actually says.
A visa is no problem apparently since I am a Swiss "citizen", quote from the government site

Swiss nationals and EEA nationals have a right to live and work in the United Kingdom.
so I'm all set there! :D