New national accolade for JohnsonDiversey training

1 February 2007: JohnsonDiversey in Northampton has earned a national accolade as a centre of specialist learning for hygiene skills in food manufacturing.

It has been selected as one of the first accredited Academy Training Centres within the new National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing. The government’s skills minister Phil Hope announced yesterday (Wednesday 31 January 2007) the go-ahead for the £4.4 million academy, which is set to open in April, and is forecast to deliver new skills to at least 28,000 people during its first four years.

It is only the fourth of a new network of sector-based National Skills Academies to be established, and is 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, which will administer the academy from its head offices at York.

The majority of training programmes will be delivered through a network of Academy Centres throughout England, each drawing upon the best expertise available within the network. JohnsonDiversey, which has delivered the Hygiene Managers’ Training Course to employees of food and beverage manufacturing sites for more than five years, can now provide the framework for trainers across the UK to train people before they enter the food industry, giving employers skilled workers ready to work knowledgably from day one.

Initially there are five Academy Centres, the others covering production expertise such as fish processing (Grimsby), ready meal production (Holbeach), dairy products (Nantwich), and meat and poultry (Dereham). It is anticipated that there will be another 30 Academy Centres within three years.

Malcolm Farnan, food group director of JohnsonDiversey UK, said: “Central to our marketing activities is raising standards of hygiene management in food and beverage manufacturing. We see our accreditation to Academy Training Centre status as a significant stride forward in achieving that objective. This will serve to build the hygiene management skills across all sectors of the industry.”

Paul Wilkinson, the chairman of Improve, and also chairman of two food manufacturers, Big Bear and Produce World, said: “This is a major new landmark in the training provision for food and drink manufacturers. The National Skills Academy has been driven by employers’ needs, has been designed by employers, and will be run by employers.”

Many academy training programmes can be followed in the form of blended e-learning courses, which are 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.

Further information

Costs–The academy is costing £4.4 million to set up in its first three years, after which it is forecast to become self-financing through the sale of training programmes to employers.

Capital contributions from employers over the first three years, in the form of donations of equipment and premises at Academy Training Centres, amount to £1.4 million, and are backed up by another £1 million from employers in the form of rent waivers and training programme development contributions. Employers are expected to contribute to the academy another £1 million in cash sponsorship in the first three years to match £1 million in cash committed by the government through its Learning and Skills Council.

Jaine Clarke, Learning and Skills Council Director of Skills for Employers, which manages the network of National Skills Academies, said: “Employer sponsorship is key to the success of the National Skills Academies and benefits to them are far reaching. This is why companies such as Warburton’s, Nestle UK and RHM chose to lead in the creation of the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing. They know that a highly trained and motivated workforce delivers improvements to productivity and performance overall.”

Improve–Improve is one of 25 sector skills councils established by the government to take the lead in driving up skills in the workplace in order to promote higher productivity and stronger competitiveness for UK businesses in the global market. Funded primarily by the government, sector skills councils are also supported by employers, whose needs they represent when stimulating change among the providers of education and skills. Sector skills councils work closely with employers to promote greater commitment to improving skills in their workforces, and with schools, colleges, universities, and private training organisations to improve the provision of basic skills training and to make vocational and occupational training more relevant to the modern commercial climate.