Nexnet

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 make yesterday’s golden goose look like tomorrow’s dead duck.

 

Five years ago, I was involved in drawing up a vision for how skills and training could help the food and drink industry reach a new level of world-class achievement.

 

The business plan for what became Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, spelt out how the industry could end the disjointed, mish-mash approach to skills and training that once prevailed in the industry and replace it with a unified, employer-led, cross-sector vision. It described the importance of engaging all employers, big and small, in the skills debate so they would recognise the value of developing a multi-skilled, modern workforce. It outlined how the creation of a demand-led training and qualifications system which allocated public funds based on real business needs would drive performance and success in the global market

 

Five years to the month since Improve was launched, I do not believe the vision was far off the mark. In that time, Improve has delivered, in the Sector Skills Agreement (SSA), the food and drink industry’s first ever cross-sector strategy for how to attract more talent into the industry and use skills to drive success. The reforms Improve has undertaken of National and Scottish Vocational Qualifications (N/SVQs) and Apprenticeships have made them more flexible, more relevant and easier to access, driving up participant numbers as a result. Our National Skills Academy (NSA) for Food and Drink Manufacturing has brought together employers, training professionals and specialists from across the industry to create a nationwide training resource which can respond to the needs of individual companies.

 

So, where next? There certainly remain unfulfilled ambitions – the industry is still not exactly a destination of choice for bright young people leaving university. And in the grip of recession, it is pertinent to ask whether the skills agenda heralded by the Leitch Report in a time of optimism and plenty is still relevant.

 

There is a school of thought which says that the current economic climate only serves to underline the importance of a collaborative, demand-led approach to skills for the food and industry. Traditionally, jobs in food are more secure in a recession than in other industries, but margins, tight at the best of times, are squeezed even further as consumers, retailers, wholesalers and producers all pass the demand for value down the supply chain. A food company’s greatest resource then becomes its staff as, with the appropriate skills, they can drive the efficiency and productivity to accommodate those pressures.

 

Increasing collaboration on skills across the supply chain is essential and will form a key part of Improve and the NSA’s strategy over the next five years. The industry as a whole needs a ready supply of people with the skills needed to improve performance, so having different levels in the chain pulling against each other benefits no one. We will also continue to work to increase the flexibility of qualifications so they can be targeted very precisely to the skills needed for specific job roles. Improve is developing a brand new Food and Drink Qualification which, ultimately, will allow employers to have their own in-house training accredited as part of a recognised qualification, increasing compatibility between sectors, opening up progression routes and encouraging staff to train more.

 

Tied to this, another priority will be to put pressure on the government to shift public funding away from full qualifications to short courses and units within qualifications. This will ensure companies have access to the resources they need to get staff up to speed in required skills quickly and effectively. In the midst of recession, this will give companies the confidence to respond to mounting pressures by investing in staff, and, looking forward to recovery, will form a platform for building the adaptable, multi-skilled workforce that remains the centre piece of Improve’s vision.

 

For further information, go to www.improve-skills.co.uk.

 

Ends

 

Improve is one of 25 sector skills councils established by the government to take the lead in driving up skills in the workplace in order to promote higher productivity and stronger competitiveness for UK businesses in the global market. Funded primarily by the government, sector skills councils are also supported by employers in their sectors, whose needs they represent when stimulating change among the providers of education and skills. Sector skills councils work closely with employers to promote greater commitment to improving skills in their workforces, and with schools, colleges, universities, and private training organisations to improve the provision of basic skills training and to make vocational and occupational training more relevant to the modern commercial climate.

 

 

Issued on behalf of Improve, the food and drink sector skills council, www.improveltd.co.uk, by Nexnet PR, Leeds, www.nexnet.co.uk. For further information call Nexnet on 0113 247 0029 or email paul.newham@nexnet.co.uk.