Paul Wilkinson is leading a fresh assault on the industry’s poor training record with the aim of making food and drink a recognised career of choice. His organisation is working to become the leading authority for the development of skills and here he outlines its strategy
January is a time of year when most of us take stock. Add to this that students are also beginning to consider their futures and the options available to them, and you can see why January has become such a critical time for the recruitment of staff. The question I ask is: how many of these people will be considering the food and drink sector as a career option and why is the sector not considered an attractive one?
Recognising the weaknesses in a particular sector is normally the first step to addressing how it can improve - so at least, by conducting industry wide research and comprehensive audits of what is available, we have the first foot on the ladder. I have been in the food and drink industry for long enough to recognise that it badly needs a structured approach to training, qualifications and a career path development programme that will make the industry one of career choice rather than one of convenience or necessity.
It is for those reasons that I became involved in Improve - the Food and Drink Sector Skills Council (FDSSC), which we hope will become the recognised authority for developing the skills of the food and drink sector’s workforce and hence increasing the attractiveness and productivity of the UK food and drink industry.
Of course, there is a long way to go, not least in that we are still in the process of applying for our licence to operate and our initial three year’s funding from the Sector Skills Development Agency. All being well, this will be granted around April and then we can start to address some of the most basic
problems that face the industry.
The industry is worth £66bn in turnover and has some half a million employees, with the creation of Improve FDSSC providing a unique opportunity for the industry to review its commitment to training, to establish best practice and then create an industry with world class capability.
While some organisations already provide first class training support services, there is a huge need to ensure that these standards and practices embrace the whole industry at all levels, particularly within SMEs in key manufacturing areas of the country.
The lack of clear industry leadership on this subject has created a significant sense of apathy among employers of all sizes who, as a result, either pursue their own agenda or do not bother at all. The main losers in this process are the SMEs as, by and large, the bigger the company, the more likely it is to be self-sufficient and have a distinct HR function.
All this is set against a background of an industry with a poor reputation as an employer, suffering from low pay and significant skill shortages and failing to equip its workforce with the necessary competencies to be effective.
What is clear is that the leadership and vision must be created first, in order to demonstrate meaningful benefits to the whole employer base. Improve FDSSC will be at the centre of a ‘skills alliance’, acting as the conduit between the demand and supply sides, linking the needs of our employers to the providers of learning, with the objective of facilitating the relationship between the two.
Our success will be qualitatively measured by the relationships we are going to create between employers and training providers to deliver enhanced performance within the workforce.
Ultimately the market place will validate this success as we move out of the start-up subsidised phase into an open market situation where we need to have achieved a reputation for delivery which creates voluntary membership funding.
A key feature of our plan is to use our website as the main means of delivery. We believe that, established properly, a service of interlinked sites will be the umbilical cord which links the users to the providers.
In taking this route, we are further embracing the future as part of our core values.
We aim to make a real difference, I would not be doing this otherwise at this stage of my career!
n Paul Wilkinson is chairman of Improve - the Food and Drink Sector Skills Council, and a former chairman of Ranks Hovis McDougall.
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