New figures reveal UK food industry passing 50,000 Apprenticeships landmark

Phil Black - PII Editor 13/03/2013

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A landmark 50,000 new Apprenticeships have been created across the UK food supply chain over the past 18 months following a major skills push by businesses in every part of the food supply chain, Improve, the skills body for food manufacturing has revealed.

David Heath, Minister of State for Agriculture and Food, commended the achievement saying: “The UK’s food and agriculture sector is our biggest employer providing jobs for 3.7 million people and contributing over £96 billion to our economy. I want to see this sector grow and become more globally competitive, creating more job opportunities for young people.”

Apprenticeship growth has been evident across all parts of the food supply chain – including a near trebling of the numbers in the food manufacturing sector.

“The increase in Apprenticeships in food manufacturing represents a concerted response to the challenge of recruiting 137,000 new staff by 2020 to replace a significant section of the experienced workforce nearing retirement,” said Improve chief executive Justine Fosh. “Apprenticeships are now a proven tool in attracting and nurturing the next generation of food workers as well as supporting existing workers to respond to the twin challenge of automation and new technology.”

Fosh added that food manufacturers are increasingly seeing the benefit of working together to address skills and recruitment issues.

The Apprenticeship drive was spurred by a 2011 report coordinated by Improve which identified a range of common skills challenges shared by businesses across the UK’s farming, food manufacturing, food distribution, food retail and food hospitality sectors.

The Food Supply Chain report, a collaboration between businesses, trade organisations, industry groups and skills bodies, highlighted the need to update the skills and job knowledge of current staff and make working in food businesses more attractive to young people as many workers are now nearing retirement.

Speaking during Apprenticeship Week (March 11-15) Improve chief executive Justine Fosh said: “Working together, we set a shared target of creating 50,000 new Apprenticeships across the food supply chain and I’m delighted to say that the latest figures from all relevant skills bodies shows we’ve now surpassed that.

“This is an important step in improving the image of the industry and demonstrating to young people that the food sector offers a great variety of career opportunities and the chance to progress in a dynamic, modern industry that plays a vital role in the country’s economy.”

Food Minister David Heath said it was vitally important for businesses in the food supply chain to be able to attract new talent with the right skills so the UK can continue to lead the way in developing innovative food sciences and technology.

Mr. Heath said: “I’m extremely pleased that UK food and agriculture businesses are tackling this issue head on, with 50,000 new apprenticeships created by the industry over the past 18 months. I will continue to do all I can to ensure Government works with the industry to encourage more apprenticeships for the future.”

Angela Coleshill, Employment, Skills and Corporate Services Director at the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), said that as the UK’s largest manufacturing sector and a key player in the UK’s food supply chain, the FDF recognises that apprentices are vital to the sector’s success and achievement of the FDF’s joint vision with Government to grow the food manufacturing sector by 20 per cent by 2020.

She said: “We strongly believe that apprenticeships are a fantastic way of attracting talent for the future and of bringing many benefits to our businesses including increased productivity, improved competitiveness and a motivated workforce. Last year, we were delighted to report that we had smashed ourApprenticeship Pledge target early and trebled numbers.

“Food manufacturers are also taking collective action to make food and drink manufacturing a career of first choice for graduates and school-leavers alike, through our targeted campaign – Taste Success – A Future in Food, helping us build the pool of talented apprentices that can be developed and deployed across the industry – building skills for the future.”

The Apprenticeship numbers across the entire UK Food Supply Chain were collated by food manufacturing skills body Improve using data from a range of skills councils connected with the food industry including Lantra, skills council for farming, Improve, skills council for food manufacturing and processing, Skillsmart Retail, skills council for food retail and People 1st, the skills council for hospitality.