27.05.2009
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 manufacturing, sustainability and quality. The results will be used as the basis for the content of the new qualification, which will be publicly accredited as part of the new national Qualifications and Credits Framework (QCF).
Several major names have already expressed an interest in joining the group’s first meeting on 25th June, which was originally intended to be held on 18th June, including Heinz, Warburtons, United Biscuits, Northern Foods and Swizzells Matlow, but Improve is keen to hear the opinions of as many employers, large and small, as possible. A second working group will be held on Thursday 30th July.
Derek Williams, Improve’s development director, said: “Driving productivity and efficiency is something food and drink companies of all sizes and from all sectors have right at the top of their list of priorities. There are a lot of approaches to improving business performance out there, some of which are proven to be very effective. The idea of this project is to first of all look at how approaches like lean manufacturing, sustainability and production management can be best adapted to meet the needs of the food industry, and secondly to make them readily available for employers to use in training staff to instigate effective change.
“In the first stage of the project, we will work with employers to identify a set of National Occupational Standards outlining the skills and knowledge all workers in the industry should have in order to achieve optimum performance. These standards will then form the basis for a nationally recognised Food and Drink Proficiency Qualification designed specifically for assessment in the workplace.”
Improve is developing a whole new suite of food and drink qualifications in accordance with the QCF, the first of which, the Level 2 Award for Proficiency in Poultry Meat Inspection, was launched in February. Mr Williams says the new qualifications , built on a flexible system of bite-sized units, will establish a new “common currency” for skills and training across all food and drink sectors based on employer demand.
“Food and drink Proficiency Qualifications will be demand-led qualifications designed to provide development and recognition for the actual skills and knowledge people need to do their jobs effectively,” said Williams. “ Qualifications for industry have suffered from the fact that they tend to prescribe content and assessment methods, which is not always in tune with what goes on in the workplace. By introducing a credit-based system, we are able to put a value on the day-to-day skills and knowledge people use. This will give employers and workers alike much greater flexibility in terms of which skills are important to them and how they are assessed, recognising previous achievements and offering progression routes. This in turn will result in more workers getting better recognition for a wider range of useful skills.”
