Nexnet

24th Jun 2010
Pilot scheme helps Northern Ireland’s small businesses flourish
A pilot scheme aimed at helping small businesses in Northern Ireland tackle the effects of the recession has been hailed a success by employers. Improve, the food and drink sector skills council has been working with five companies employing between 20 and 60 people, carrying out a skills needs ana... more...

22nd Jun 2010
Onus on industry to work its way to prosperity, says skills chief
The head of the UK’s food and drink sector skills council says George Osborne’s first budget as Chancellor had lain down the gauntlet to industry to work the country’s economy back to prosperity. Jack Matthews, chief executive of Improve, said: “Everyone knew there would be ... more...

21st Jun 2010
Letter to Food Manufacture
I was interested to read the thoughts of David Gregory, chairman of Assured Food Standards, on how the sector skills councils associated with the food and drink industry should work more closely and co-ordinate their efforts to “enable skills transfer across the industry” (We need a new ... more...

17th Jun 2010
Food and drink is the career for women with high aspirations
Women wanting a career with prospects and opportunities to rise through the ranks should consider the food and drink industry.   As the industry is dominated by men - the male share of the workforce is expected to rise from 67 per cent to 74 per cent by 2017 according to the latest Working Fu... more...

3rd Jun 2010
New course promises to boost skills and broaden horizons in food and drink
Employers and employees in the Scottish food and drink industry are being urged to consider a new qualification aimed at tackling shortages in qualified food scientists and technologists. In August, Glasgow Metropolitan College will become the first college in Scotland to offer the new Higher Natio... more...

1st Jun 2010
Food and drink industry has reasons to be upbeat over coalition policies
Food and drink companies have ‘reasons to be upbeat’ as the new coalition government begins to spell out its policies in detail, according to the head of the food and drink sector skills council. Jack Matthews, chief executive of Improve, said he had received assurances from ministers a... more...

27th May 2010
Call for new government to heed employers on skills
The head of the food and drink sector skills council has called on the new coalition government to make full use of what he called ‘a new-found activism’ on skills and training among employers. Responding to the publication of the Confederation of British Industry’s latest Educati... more...

24th May 2010
Improve chief executive takes on new role
Jack Matthews, chief executive of food and drink sector skills council Improve, has been appointed a director of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework Partnership. The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) is an integrated lifelong learning framework which was set up in 200... more...

20th May 2010
Letter to the editor - The Guardian
Tim Lang and Charlie Clutterbuck’s claim that the food and drink industry should be given a central strategic role in the new government’s plans for economic recovery (Food can help cut the fiscal deficit, Monday 17 May) was a timely and welcome contribution to a debate that has been rag... more...

23rd Apr 2010
Letter to the editor of Food Manufacture
I could not agree more with regards to some of the points raised in last month’s Editor’s View (April 2010) about the image problems faced by the food manufacturing sector. Attracting young people into the industry is a long-standing problem. It is the image of the industry as low-paid ... more...

16th Apr 2010
Haggis leads the way in new Modern Apprenticeship
A Haggis maker is flying high after scoring a first for Scotland. David Candlish, a production operative at Grant Foods in Galston, Ayrshire, has become the first person in Scotland to complete a Level 2 Modern Apprenticeship.   And one of the first to congratulate him was Keith Brown MSP, m... more...

8th Apr 2010
Improve and National Skills Academy announce restructure
Employers in the food and drink industry will be handed better access to advice and support on skills following a major restructuring of sector skills council Improve and the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing. Improve’s operations and marketing teams are being merged wi... more...

1st Apr 2010
Government pressed to re-examine food policy
The importance of agriculture and food manufacturing to the UK’s economy will be re-examined following a call from sector skills councils Lantra and Improve for the government to acknowledge its impact.   A recent report commissioned by Whitehall and published by the UKCES, ‘Skil... more...

31st Mar 2010
More help for women in food and drink industry
Women working in the food and drink industry are being offered access to subsidised training in a bid to give them better access to higher paid, higher skilled careers. Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, and the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing have secured f... more...

19th Mar 2010
Skills ‘league table’ belies importance of food and drink
The head of the UK’s food and drink sector skills council has warned that the goal of raising the bar on workplace skills risks being jeopardised by ‘confusing political priorities with economic ones’ and urged employers to make their voices heard. Responding to the publication of... more...

9th Mar 2010
First of new food qualifications set to be launched
A brand new qualification designed to drive improvements in productivity and efficiency in the workplace is set to be launched in April. The Food Manufacturing Excellence qualification will be the first Improve Proficiency Qualification (IPQ) to be available to food and drink employers. IPQs are a ... more...

3rd Mar 2010
Food and drink industry must become a priority in bid to become global leader
Attracting new talent into the food and drink industry will be essential if the UK is to achieve its goal of becoming a global leader in sustainable and secure food, the head of the UK food and drink sector skills council has told politicians. Improve chief executive, Jack Matthews, told the All Pa... more...

1st Mar 2010
Improve announces new qualifications for food and drink industry
  New work-based qualifications for the food and drink industry will give training providers the opportunity to work with employers in a variety of different and more flexible ways, according to sector skills council Improve.   Improve is currently working with employers and awarding bo... more...

25th Feb 2010
New website set to increase employer involvement in vocational reform
Food and drink sector skills council Improve is urging employers to visit a new website recently launched to raise awareness of a large scale overhaul of sector-based qualifications.   The site is part of a joint project with Business Link and the Department for Business, Innovation... more...

17th Feb 2010
Apprentice Ian, 73, shows age is no barrier to learning
When most people reach their seventies they would be more than happy if they never took an exam again. This is not so for one 73-year-old who has recently registered as a Modern Apprentice and is studying for the first qualification of his life. Ian Watson works with ANM Group, an Aberdeenshire-bas... more...

10th Feb 2010
Food chief named chair of regional skills alliance
Jack Matthews, chief executive of the York-based food and drink sector skills council, Improve, has been appointed chair of the Yorkshire and Humber branch of the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils. The Alliance represents all of the industry-linked sector skills councils in the region, acting as t... more...

3rd Feb 2010
Food and drink employers to create own recipe for Apprenticeships
New flexible qualifications will give employers in the food and drink industry the opportunity to develop their own learning programmes for Apprenticeships.   Work is under way to bring food and drink Apprenticeships in line with the Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) - the new cre... more...

3rd Feb 2010
Former poultry worker helps others shine through Apprenticeships
Kevin Bowman knows all about what it takes to rise through the ranks in the food and drink industry. Having spent 20 years working in the poultry sector in East Anglia, he now uses his experience coaching others to fulfil their own potential in his role as an Apprenticeship assessor. Kevin started ... more...