Food Firms to Double Apprentices

The UK’s food and drink manufacturing industry has pledged to create career opportunities and upskill its existing workforce by doubling the number of apprentices in the sector.

The announcement was made at the recent Food and Drink Federation’s Community Partnership Awards and highlighted that currently the industry employs around 1700 apprentices but food and drink manufacturers are now pledging to double this to 3400 by the end of 2012.

Coming at a time when the industry is seeking to replace up to 137,000 skilled employees over the next five years, the pledge is also likely to be good news to individuals seeking a way to learn new skills and gain qualifications while building their careers.  Food and drink manufacturers are not being asked to individually double their apprenticeship numbers but to contribute to FDF’s collective pledge.

This year, FDF has been working to ensure that there are sufficient recruits into key functions of the industry including food science and engineering.  It has launched ‘Taste Success – A Future in Food’, a campaign to make young people aware of the wide range of careers on offer and challenge perceptions about food manufacturing. It is also working with the sector skills council Improve and member companies to develop a specific food manufacturing engineering degree that will be launched within the next two years.

Speaking about the apprenticeship pledge, Business Development Director Paul Reeves said: “Food and drink is the UK’s largest manufacturing industry and it is important that it develops and retains skilled people in order that it continues to flourish and support the country’s economy.  We need to create opportunities for young people to come in to the workforce through routes other than a degree path and I’m delighted to be able to announce a doubling of the apprenticeships on offer in future.”

Brinsworth Training currently work with some of the large food manufacturers across the region, namely KP Nuts, Premier Foods and Kraft Foods.

For details on how your orhanisation can benefit from an apprenticeship programme, contact Paul Reeves on 01709 389 520.