Employers in food and drink manufacturing have been given a new opportunity to forge better links with local secondary schools with the gift of a valuable teaching aid from skills council Improve.

The council has produced the Food and Drink Schools Challenge, which is a self-contained teaching aid on interactive CD ROM. The teaching device aims to introduce pupils to the world of food and drink manufacturing and is available free on request to any school or food and drink manufacturer.

The challenge enables small teams of pupils to work through a six-stage process of designing a new product, manufacturing it, designing and making the packaging, working out the costs and selling price, planning a marketing campaign, and presenting their results at a trade fair.

To allow everything to be done using school resources, the challenge recommends products are selected from the limited range of sandwiches, pizzas, smoothies, muffins or breakfast bars. Total teaching time is estimated at one day.

The challenge has operated very successfully for several years in Scotland as an industry-delivered programme, but the new CD ROM means teachers can now deliver it without the need for industry involvement.

Rachael Owen, skills development adviser at Improve, said: “To enhance the learning experience, we do encourage schools and food and drink manufacturers to work together on the challenge, either to have the pupils’ work assessed by the professionals, or perhaps to allow for an inspirational factory visit at the start of the challenge. But we make it clear that it is not essential if the school prefers to go it alone.

“However, we also think that this new version of the challenge provides a golden opportunity for manufacturers to forge better links with their local schools, which will definitely help in future recruitment for individual companies and for the industry as a whole. Schools may not respond to the call to apply for a free CD ROM, but if a local employer offers one, along with an offer to contribute to the challenge, then more young people will gain an introduction to our industry.”