Proposals would boost in house training schemes

UK food and drink manufacturers may soon be able to offer their workers recognised qualifications and get government funding for such in-house training.

The two proposals to boost in-house training in the industry are being made by Improve, the government agency tasked with boosting expertise in food and drink manufacturing.

The proposals, along with a decision by the UK government to fund training for older workers, provide an example to other countries of how to ensure manufacturers are not constrained by the labour force.

The UK's food and drink sector has one of the lowest skilled workforces in the country, a factor that makes it difficult for companies to find qualified employees.

Improve said the proposals would allow food and drink manufacturers to offer their employees the chance to gain universally-recognised qualifications through their own tailor-made in-house training programmes - and attract new government funding in the process.

The proposals are an outcome of a consultation with employers on how to make National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) and Scottish Vocational Qualifications (SVQs) more flexible and more relevant to the work place.

Improve said it wants to see employers' own training programmes recognised as part of a new framework governing the award of vocational qualifications across the industry.

Currently, 80 per cent of training within the sector happens in-house, but only 15 per cent leads to an externally accredited qualification, said Jack Matthews, Improve's chief executive.

"In the food and drink industry we have had a rather chaotic situation where dissatisfaction with the structure of vocational qualifications has led to different employers running different training courses in isolation from one another," he stated.

"This has contributed to a perceived shortage of skills that can transfer from job to job, and in some cases has posed a barrier to career progression for employees."

There is widespread agreement that skills provision across all industries should be more streamlined and more employer-focused, he noted.

"Encouraging employers to run training programmes as part of an agreed industry-wide framework which leads to accredited qualifications should be one key route to achieving this," he stated.

"What is more, this could benefit employers financially by attracting government funding for the training they provide."

Improve recently unveiled a new qualifications system for the food and drink manufacturing sector.

From September, food manufacture NVQs, SVQs and other vocationally-linked qualifications will be implemented using the system, which is made up of units that learners can mix and match to build towards a tailor-made qualification.

Matthews said that by linking in-house training programmes with the framework would allow manufacturers and employees even greater flexibility in designing their qualifications.

The flexibility will in turn give more scope for meeting the skills demands both of specific employers and the industry as a whole, he claimed.

"Employers played a major part in recommending to us the skills and standards they wanted the new qualifications to promote," he stated.

"They are exactly the same skills and standards employers are already striving for in the training they provide."

In related news, the UK government this month scrapped the upper age limit on funding.

To date, employers have only been able to attract financial assistance for taking on apprentices between the ages of 16 and 24.

Now food and drink manufacturers, among others, will now be able to get funding for older employees.

Matthews said the decision is a significant victory for the agency, which has long lobbied for the age limit to be abolished.

"Our industry tends to attract older workers," he noted.

"More than half the industry's employees are aged 40 and over and the vast majority are over 25, so funding apprenticeships only up to the age of 24 is of very limited help to employers.

School leavers alone will not meet the industry's skills needs, but in older workers we have an excellent resource just waiting to be developed."

The about 40 training providers who work in food and drink manufacturing -- including Poultec, the University of Lincolnshire, North Lancs Training and Orient Gold -- are now in the process of applying to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to run adult apprenticeship schemes.

Employers will then be able to access schemes funded from a government pot worth about £30m, Matthews stated.

The schemes for older workers are expected to be ready from late autumn, coinciding with the launch of the new food and drink manufacturing apprenticeship framework.

The new apprenticeships will replace the current ones for bakery, meat and poultry processing and general food and drink manufacture.

"Employers also want to be able to offer training to new recruits and existing employees of all ages," he said.

"Having access to funding for adult apprenticeships will further boost their ability to do this."

The UK's food and drink industry has one of the most poorly qualified workforces in the country, according to Improve.

About 19 per cent of the sector's workforce has no qualifications, compared to the average of 11 per cent for the total UK workforce, according to a previous study by the agency.

In addition there is a significant under-representation of females to males.

Males make up two-thirds of the sector's workforce compared to the national average where males make up a little over a half of the entire UK workforce.

Last year Improve created created an accredited system to help employers check the qualifications of potential employees.

The "Green Card" system provides employees with a record of the accredited training they have taken in the industry.

Improve was established in July 2004 by the Skills for Business Network and is sponsored by the UK's department for learning and skills.