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The National
Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing will open in April
after receiving the go-ahead by the government on 31 January 2007.
The
culmination of more than two years of research, planning and
development by leading employers, co-ordinated by Improve, the food
and drink sector skills council, the £4.4 million academy is
forecast to deliver new skills to at least 28,000 people during its
first four years.
"This is
a major new landmark in the training provision for food and drink
manufacturers," said the chairman of Improve Paul Wilkinson, who
is also chairman of two food manufacturers, Big Bear and Produce
World. "The National Skills Academy has been driven by
employers' needs, has been designed by employers, and will be run by
employers."
The majority
of training programmes will be delivered through a network of
approved Academy Training Centres, each designated by its particular
specialist area of expertise. The first five are: Grimsby Institute
of Further and Higher Education (fish processing); University of
Lincoln Holbeach Campus (chilled ready meals); Poultec Training,
Dereham in Norfolk (meat and poultry); Reaseheath College in Nantwich
(dairy); and Johnson Diversey in Northampton (food hygiene). More are
expected to be approved soon, and it is anticipated that there will
be 35 within three years.
Although
funded initially for England only, it is hoped that the academy will
soon be able to make its programmes available in Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland through a planned network of Registered Training
Providers. These will be organisations or individuals who will not
have a recognised status within the academy, but who will become
accredited to deliver academy courses anywhere in the UK. It is
expected that there will be 200 within four years.
A major
benefit of the academy will be the ease with which it can co-ordinate
the many hundreds of existing training programmes and units available
in different parts of the country and make them available to learners
wherever they happen to be.
The academy
will also draw upon the best expertise available to develop new
training programmes and learning units designed specifically to meet
the needs of employers. Already there are ideas in the pipeline for
about 40 new programmes and units which eventually will be accessed
through the new academy.
The first
wholly new programme to be offered as soon as the academy opens its
doors is 'Production management - a lean approach'. It has been
designed and produced specifically for the academy, and will deliver
learning units pitched at NVQ levels 2 and 3. Learners can select
from job-specific units for bakery, meat and poultry, sea-fish
processing, or general food manufacturing. More units for other
specialist areas will be added later.
The programme
can be followed in the form of a blended e-learning course, which is
a combination of online study and classroom or work-based learning.
The online parts of the programme will be available through the
National Skills Academy web site, which will go live in March, and
which will also provide an information base for learners and
employers.
Web site
features will include: diagnostic tools to identify the skills that
individuals might require and the best training solutions available;
a course-finder tool that works with a fully searchable database; on-line
training courses; and access to training materials. The web site
will also act as the communications and information centre for the
academy's administration.
Jaine Clarke,
Director of Skills for Employers, Learning and Skills Council (which
manages the network of National Skills Academies), said: "Each
National Skills Academy represents a major commitment by Government
in the future skill needs of the economy. We are proud to have worked
with Improve - the Sector Skills Council for Food and Drink
Manufacturing - to deliver this important initiative.
"Employer
commitment and sponsorship is key to the success of National Skills
Academies and the benefits for UK employers are far reaching. This is
why companies such as Big Bear, Warburton's, Nestle UK and RHM have
worked with Improve to create the National Skills Academy for Food
and Drink Manufacturing. They believe that a highly trained and
motivated workforce delivers improvements to productivity and performance."
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