Nexnet

10th Dec 2009
Production operator crowned Apprentice winner
A Thetford production operator beat tough competition to claim a top industry prize for her achievements as an Apprentice. Martyna Zelazek, who works at Marlow Foods in Methwold, Norfolk, won the Apprenticeships Award at this year’s Food Manufacture Excellence Awards, sponsored by food and dr... more...

10th Dec 2009
Call for end to ‘top-down’ approach to skills funding
The UK’s food and drink industry skills chief has labelled the current system of funding vocational qualifications ‘out of date’ and says businesses need more flexible assistance in training staff to help prepare for economic recovery and growth. Jack Matthews, chief executive of ... more...

10th Dec 2009
Employers invited to have their say on food and drink ‘excellence’ qualification
Food and drink employers are being asked to give their views on new qualification options designed to drive improvements in productivity and efficiency in the workplace. Content for an innovative new ‘Achieving Food Manufacturing Excellence’ qualification has been created by Improve, in... more...

4th Dec 2009
Fruit and veg insiders needed to help develop new Standards
Employers working in the fresh produce sector are being called on to support the development of a new set of Occupational Standards being led by Improve, the food and drink sector skills council. The Standards will describe the specialist knowledge and skills needed to undertake particular job role... more...

26th Nov 2009
“Tartan Tiger” tame on skills, says council chief
The head of Scotland’s employer-led skills councils has challenged the country’s government, industry leaders and training sector to step up its game on education and skills or risk seeing the dream of a “Tartan Tiger” economy slip away.   Speaking at the Scottish Coun... more...

25th Nov 2009
New chair for south-east skills partnership
The regional manufacturing skills alliance for London and the south-east has appointed a new chair as it looks to boost access to training for companies across the region. Louise Codling, southern operations manager for food and drink sector skills council Improve, has been appointed as chair of th... more...

19th Nov 2009
Food and drink sector skills council hails decision on migrant butchers
Food and drink sector skills council Improve is claiming victory after successfully lobbying for two butchery roles to be included on the government’s priority list for skilled migrant workers. Improve led a delegation, that included Lancashire meat processing company Dunbia and the British M... more...

12th Nov 2009
Improve chief backs plans to reform skills bodies
The head of food and drink sector skills council Improve says he ‘cautiously welcomes’ government plans to cut the number of skills bodies in order to make the system easier for employers to navigate. Responding to the publication of the paper Skills For Growth – The National Skil... more...

30th Oct 2009
New horizons for Scotland’s food and drink employees
Workers in the £7.4 billion Scottish food and drink industry are being given the opportunity to open up new horizons in their careers and help tackle skills shortages. The Higher National Certificate (HNC) in Food Science and Technology starts at the end of this month at Glasgow Metropolitan ... more...

27th Oct 2009
Welsh food and drink companies encouraged to grow their own
A new qualification is encouraging food and drink companies in Wales to ‘grow their own’ in a bid to overcome a shortage of leaders in the industry. The Grow Your Own Manager project offers companies the chance to put staff through a subsidised introductory management course designed to... more...

14th Oct 2009
Food and drink industry “can lead the way for UK plc”
A rallying cry to food and drink companies to lead the way for UK plc has been issued by skills chief Jack Matthews after his organisation won a new mandate to continue to deliver the strategic reforms and solutions to help drive up food and drink industry performance and productivity. Improve, the... more...

10th Oct 2009
Employers urged to have their say on new bakery qualification
Employers in the bakery industry are being asked for their views on the development of a new qualification. The Bakery Proficiency qualification is being developed by food and drink sector skills council Improve in consultation with companies, including Bettys, Cooplands, United Biscuits, Greggs an... more...

1st Oct 2009
New qualifications put food and drink bosses in control
The first work-based and vocational qualifications developed exclusively for the food and drink industry will hand employers unprecedented control over training, according to skills chiefs. Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, is overseeing the creation of two brand new families of qu... more...

29th Sep 2009
Bakery company’s employees benefit from innovative course
Warrens Bakery employees have become the first to benefit from a new course that doesn’t require any time in the classroom, coursework, or exams. Thirty-eight of the Cornish company’s retail staff have recently completed an NVQ Level 2 course in Food Manufacture Retail and Service Suppo... more...

11th Sep 2009
Skills shortages holding back Welsh food producers
The Welsh food and drink industry is enjoying a recruitment boom – but employers are being warned that its ability to compete globally in the long-term is being damaged by a lack of investment in skills and development. New research from food and drink sector skills council Improve has reveal... more...

10th Sep 2009
Food and drink apprentice numbers soar
Northern Ireland has seen a five-fold increase in the number of new food and drink manufacturing apprentices thanks to a new-look qualification and extra funding. Over 350 people across Northern Ireland are currently taking an Apprenticeship in Food Manufacture with a marked increase in the number ... more...

17th Aug 2009
Food and drink employers to reap the benefits of efficient workforce
Employers in the food and drink industry looking to boost business performance and productivity will be supported by a new qualification. Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, is in the process of developing a qualification which will develop and assess a range of skills linked to impr... more...

17th Aug 2009
Employers urged to have their say on new brewing units of assessment
Employers in the brewing industry are being asked for their views on the development of a new qualification. The Level 2 Proficiency in Brewing qualification is being developed by food and drink sector skills council Improve and the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD) with input from companie... more...

13th Aug 2009
Food industry sustainability strategy welcomed by skills chief
The head of the UK’s food and drink sector skills council has welcomed government proposals to reassess research and skills funding as part of a far-reaching new strategy on food sustainability. Improve chief executive Jack Matthews was responding to environment minister Hilary Benn’s a... more...

13th Aug 2009
Food and drink industry offers ray of sunshine to school leavers
  Young people worried about finding a job or a place at university or college this autumn are being urged to look at the many opportunities available in the food and drink industry - which needs 137,000 new recruits nationwide over the next eight years.   With dour predictions of soari... more...

16th Jul 2009
Company boss and graduate complete apprenticeships
Elizabeth Bown, 41, owner of Jolly’s Fish and Farm Produce, is one of the first people to capitalise on the relaxation of upper age limits for apprentices, completing a Level 3 Modern Apprenticeship in Food Manufacture.   Twenty-three-year-old business studies graduate Graeme Horne, a q... more...

20th Jun 2009
Food supremo sets out industry vision for skills
Five years on from Improve's launch, chairman Paul Wilkinson writes in The Grocer magazine about the organisation's plans for the future. Gazing into a crystal ball is always a dangerous pastime in the food and drink industry, where the sudden and rapid nature of change has a funny tendency to... more...

17th Jun 2009
Going back to school no child’s play for Caledonian Produce
One of Scotland’s leading producers of prepared fruit and vegetables has struck upon a novel way of keeping up training and development during the recession – by sending its staff back to school. Caledonian Produce, which is part of the Bakkavor group, is based in West Lothian and suppl... more...

16th Jun 2009
£1.5 million apprentice boost lifts Scottish food industry
The Scottish Government has pledged £1.5 million to fund Modern Apprenticeships in food and drink manufacturing in a radical overhaul of training policy for the £7.6 billion industry. Money will be made available for up to 656 Modern Apprenticeship (MA) places in the industry over the c... more...

9th Jun 2009
Employers invited to set agenda for food and drink ‘excellence’ qualification
Food and drink companies are being invited to help develop a new qualification aimed at raising the bar on productivity and efficiency in the work place. Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, is setting up a working group of employers to consult on best practice in areas such as lean m... more...

30th Apr 2009
Food chief criticises migrant worker decision
The UK food and drink industry skills chief has hit out at the Government’s decision to extend a controversial registration scheme for Eastern Europeans entering the country to work. Jack Matthews, chief executive of sector skills council Improve, said the decision to extend the Worker Regist... more...

25th Mar 2009
Students urged to boost career chances through science
School pupils contemplating their choices for September are being urged to consider choosing science subjects as a means of opening up a wealth of exciting career opportunities working with food. Science subjects have been falling in popularity as both GCSE and A-Level choices in recent years, with... more...

13th Mar 2009
Improve vows to step up skills agenda to tackle recession
Food and drink sector skills council Improve has pledged to step up its efforts to help employers develop a world class workforce in order to fight off the recession.   The organisation, launched five years ago this June, has published the results of a survey undertaken to gauge employers&rsq... more...

3rd Mar 2009
Employers encouraged to have their say in new technology standards
Employers in the food and drink industry are being urged to have their say in the design of a new set of performance standards that will help ensure workers are equipped with relevant know-how concerning food technology. Sector skills council Improve is developing a new suite of National Occupation... more...

26th Feb 2009
Investing in Apprenticeships for a secure future
A leading south Yorkshire food and drink company is investing in Apprenticeships in a bid to boost skills levels and safeguard the future of the business. Pennine Foods in Sheffield, which manufactures chilled ready-meals for Marks & Spencer, has committed to taking on up to ten apprentices eac... more...

26th Feb 2009
Funds for training help firms fight recession
Scotland’s food and drink industry is set to benefit from massive injection of cash for training after the Scottish Government announced it was expanding funding for Modern Apprenticeships.  The government has confirmed that all training for food and drink apprentices aged 16 to 19 will ... more...

23rd Feb 2009
Skills chief: Apprenticeships offer tonic for recession blues
The UK’s food and drink industry can ride out the recession relatively unscathed if companies take advantage of the billions of pounds being pumped into Apprenticeships, according to the industry’s national skills chief. Jack Matthews, chief executive of food and drink sector skills cou... more...

20th Feb 2009
Apprenticeship gives Rosie a taste of the industry
Although not traditionally a destination of choice for ambitious young women, more and more are finding that taking a job in the food and drink industry can open up a wealth of opportunities. Take 19-year-old Rosie Harris from Worcester. Rosie began work at the Hereford factory of Cargill Meats Eur... more...

20th Feb 2009
Quality assured – ambitious Anneka relishes Apprenticeship opportunity
For Anneka Quincey the opportunity to expand her skills whilst also working hard to forge a career was simply too good to resist. She’d never considered an Advanced Apprenticeship in Food Manufacture as a way to further and fulfil her aspirations at work, but needed little persuading that a &... more...

20th Feb 2009
Apprenticeship is key ingredient for a successful career
Whilst working in the bakery department of a supermarket chain, Anthony Ellis realised that if he was going to get ahead in his career, he was going to have to learn to do more than follow instructions all day. Now, Anthony knows all about what a little determination – and an Apprenticeship -... more...

20th Feb 2009
New-style food manufacturing apprenticeships are helping to sow the seeds of a multi-skills culture at Dunns (Long Sutton) Ltd
New-style Apprenticeships in food manufacture are proving to be just the job for a growing agricultural seeds company, which is keen to continue developing a culture of multi skilling amongst its staff. Dunns (Long Sutton) Ltd, of Long Sutton in Lincolnshire, has a permanent workforce of 23, includ... more...

20th Feb 2009
Young entrepreneur makes cut with butchery Apprenticeship
For Jack Sidebottom, working on the family farm has been a way of life for as long as he can remember. But when it came to leaving school, Jack was eager to add something new to the business and his entrepreneurial spirit saw him undertake an exciting challenge to expand his skills. The 17-year-old... more...

19th Feb 2009
Employers lead on new-style qualifications
The first new qualifications in the biggest shake-up of vocational learning for 20 years have been rolled out in the food and drink industry. Sector skills council Improve has worked with employers to develop a range of new proficiency and competency based awards. These will commence with the launc... more...

19th Feb 2009
New qualification for Plant Inspection Assistants
Poultry processors can now improve their post mortem inspection capability, following the development of a revised proficiency qualification for Plant Inspection Assistants (PIAs). A new Level 2 Award for Proficiency in Poultry Meat Inspection has been developed by sector skills council Improve, wo... more...

17th Feb 2009
Training takes spotlight at Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards
Food and drink companies are being invited to put their names forward for a new high-profile award recognising investments in training and staff development. The Scotland Food and Drink Excellence Awards will this year include a new category, ‘Profiting through Skills and Development’. ... more...

11th Feb 2009
Employers urged to help stem food scientist shortage
Food and drink manufacturers are being invited to help develop new industry initiatives that will boost the number of food scientists and technologists (FSTs) working in the sector.   Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, is co-ordinating employer led working groups, which will ... more...

11th Feb 2009
Second consultation for sustainable standards
Food and drink manufacturers are being invited to join a second consultation to have their say on a new set of standards defining sustainable practices in the industry.   The National Occupational Standards (NOS) in Sustainability are being developed by food and drink sector skills council Im... more...

6th Jan 2009
Welsh dairy firms plot future success
Leading Welsh dairy processors have joined forces to form an advisory group to help raise the bar on skills and business development throughout the industry. Representatives from companies including First Milk, Dairy Farmers Of Britain, Rachel’s Organic, South Caernarfon Creameries, Llaeth Cy... more...