Major event 'Pick your Mix', to be held in Leeds in July, will reveal Improve's masterplan for a revolutionary raft of 16 new vocational qualifications in food manufacturing.

Improve, the sector skills council for food and drink manufacturing, aims to ensure that training and qualifications are designed to meet the needs of the sector.

The event will involve a demonstration of a new electronic tool that Improve plans to put online to help compile the most appropriate pathways for learners. By answering a series of questions about job roles and learning needs, the tool will recommend the best pathway and the most suitable combination of units.

Changes will involve the replacement of existing qualifications at Level 2, like those in meat and poultry, bakery, and general food and drink manufacturing, and in its place will be a new matrix of units of competence that can be combined to create any of 10 different pathways to a universally recognised NVQ or SVQ in Food Manufacture.

Awarding bodies are now developing the new qualifications, with the first expected to be available from September. In future, more pathways and units will be added to the framework to encompass more sub-sectors within food and drink manufacturing.

The reforms are central to the long-awaited Qualifications Framework for Food and Drink Manufacturing, which Improve is launching at the Leeds event.

Jack Matthews, chief executive of Improve, said: “Learning providers can now very easily expand their offering to employers, leading to an increase in the take-up of learning opportunities, and an increase in the rate of successful completion of qualifications, which should lead to an increase in performance and profitability throughout the sector.

“But this is only the beginning, because now that we have the framework in place we can go on to expand the range of pathways and the choice of units of learning, creating clearer and more accessible routes to success. The framework will also become one of the key structures to help shape the work of our new National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing.”

To book for a place at the event contact Sally Jenkins at Improve on 0845 644 0448.

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