Skills in the food and drink sector are set to benefit following a £100,000 government cash injection.

Improve, the food and drink manufacturing sector skills council, received the money to fund the development of new apprenticeship frameworks.

The funding, from the government’s Sector Skills Development Agency, will enable Improve to design the outlines of new apprenticeship programmes which will meet the requirements of employers within the sector.

Currently there are apprenticeship frameworks in place covering general food and drink manufacturing, meat and poultry processing and bakery.

“Our plan is to now respond to employers’ demands and design new apprenticeship programmes which not only meet their requirements, but that also offer the best range and level of training to employees,” said Teresa Brookes, learning frameworks manager at Improve.

“This will include undertaking a review of all existing frameworks and the design of entirely new programmes.”

Currently apprenticeships are only available to 16 to 24-year-olds, and Improve will use some of this funding to design the outlines of a new Young Apprenticeship framework, specifically for 14 to 16-year-olds. New, knowledge-based technical certificates will also be developed, forming one of the main elements of the apprenticeship programme.

“The existing food and drink technical certificate for the advanced frameworks is a BTEC, which is quite academic,” said Brookes.

“It is the equivalent of two A-Levels, and requires some 360 hours’ work to attain. Obviously this is hard to maintain for an employee with a full-time job, making the apprenticeship less attractive to potential candidates.

“We have seen take-up and achievement within the food and drink manufacturing sector fall significantly, which is why Improve is prioritising the development of a new technical certificate for the sector.”

She said that another issue affecting participation in the advanced framework is that the technical certificate is not widely available throughout England and Wales, with only three colleges offering training.

“We are going to develop an entirely new technical certificate which will not be as demanding in terms of learning hours, but will support the knowledge elements of the programme.

“We believe that this will make the advanced apprenticeship a more appealing proposition for training providers to run the programme, as well as helping attract candidates to take part.”