Helen Ogg is a Health and Wellbeing Coach at Coalfields Regeneration Trust, having graduated from BSc (Hons) Nutrition in 2023. In this blog, she explains how her Leeds Beckett experience ignited her passion for Nutrition and talks through what she enjoys about her job.

Course: BSc (Hons) Nutrition

Tell us a bit about yourself and what you’ve been doing since you graduated. 

I started university in 2020 studying nutrition. Initially I thought that I wanted to go into food manufacturing as my interests lay only with food and not with people or communities. Throughout my studies however, I gained a keen interest in the implications of health inequalities and wider determinants of health on dietary behaviours and lifestyle choices. This led to a summer placement at FareShare Yorkshire and a volunteer opportunity within my local area at Pontefract community kitchen, supporting individuals facing depravity with food relief. 

I graduated with first class honours and was awarded the Dean’s Prize for Excellence in Nutrition in 2023. After graduating, I started looking for nutrition related positions in community and public health. I was lucky enough to find employment within a couple of months for Coalfields Regeneration Trust, an amazing organisation that supports the needs of deprived communities in England.

Tell us a bit more about your current role and why it’s amazing. 

As a Health and Wellbeing coach, I work within local communities to help individuals improve their overall wellbeing. This ranges from 1:1 appointments focused on various areas of individual’s lives, to group sessions. I have the freedom in my role to determine the needs of the community and target interventions based on this. 

I have conducted a number of activities so far based on local needs such as cook and eat sessions, diabetes support groups, chair based exercises, weight management groups and community nutritional health awareness raising events. The company I work for focuses its efforts on old coal mining communities that face inequality and poorer health outcomes. 

How did your course at Leeds Beckett help you get to where you are today? 

At university a number of modules and assessments have been fantastic in guiding me in practice. The focus on the wider determinants of health and the impact inequalities have on health during my studies created my passion to work within communities. I can see now, whilst working within public health nutrition, how the teachings have shaped my work in practice. 

For example, during the Nutrition in Practice module in year 3, we were tasked with creating and delivering a weight management programme. The session I had planned as part of this is now something that I deliver to my clients. Additionally, the nutritional awareness raising event in year 2 is something that I am implementing with my team in multiple locations across the Wakefield district. 

What support or opportunities did you receive at Leeds Beckett that have helped shaped your career? 

I regret not utilising more services at the university, such as the support in the library or employability services, however at the time I did not feel I would benefit from them. Throughout the personal development lectures, we had guest speakers who shared their journey in nutrition. I found these inspiring and I was hopeful that I too would be able to navigate my own professional career in public health nutrition. 

From listening to past experiences, I applied for my summer placement at FareShare Yorkshire. I also volunteered to support the African-Caribbean nutritional event that was organised by one of my lecturers. These opportunities further fuelled my passion for public health nutrition.

Can you tell us about a project, piece of work or experience from university that you’re proud of?

I am incredibly proud of all the work I produced throughout my studies at university. Each piece validated the path that I was on and I saw my grades on assignments related to the psychosocial side of nutrition as confirmation of not only my understanding on the topic, but of my passion for this area of nutrition. 

The learnings from these modules and the assignments undertaken have broadened my knowledge and helped me to understand individual needs and how I can best support people.

What would you say to someone considering studying your course?

I would recommend this course to anyone with an interest in nutrition even if they are unsure which area of nutrition they would like to build a career in. The course offers a diverse range of topics and areas of nutrition to help you to build a broad knowledge of nutrition overall and also to help guide you to the area that most interests you.

What’s next for you?

I am unsure what the future holds or which avenues I may go down. For now, I am enjoying my new role and want to continue to gain experience and develop my knowledge and myself as a nutritionist.