Gloucester fosters skills
Just a stone's throw from the Cotswolds, the Forest of Dean and the Wye and Severn Valleys, Hartpury village is a great base for hikers who are looking to explore the region. At least, that's what the tourist blurb says.
As a settlement, it is believed to date back to Roman times and boasts a 1,000 year-old church. But what the tourist brochures don't know is that the picturesque locale is also home to what could soon become a Mecca for food processors keen to boost workers' skills: Hartpury College.
Located in a 400ha estate, the college is a relatively new addition to the area, having been established in 1947 as the Gloucestershire Farm Institute. Since then it has grown to cater for 3,000 full-time and 3,000 part-time students. It employs 400 full-time and part-time staff and is associated with the University of the West of England.
Hartpury is partnered with Cornwall's Duchy College as part of the development of a Centre of Vocational Excellence for food and drink for the South West. In December 2005, £480,000 worth of funding was donated to the two colleges through the Learning and Skills Council for a three-year period of development that is now bearing fruit.
Duchy, of course, is already making a name for itself as a training ground for food and drink businesses. It seems Hartpury will be hot on its heels, as it is swiftly investing in a host of initiatives set to shake up learning in the sector.
From September 2008, employees in the food and drink sector will be able to access a package of courses, including a newly launched foundation degree in food and drink manufacturing at Hartpury.
Crucially, the qualification is aimed at people already in work. "We're trying to recruit work-based learners," says Hartpury College business development director Andrew Callard. "We can act as a conduit for the development of skills. We would have to look very seriously at straight-from school undergraduates to ascertain if this is the right degree for them at this time." However, Callard says in four or five years time, when the facilities and resources are in place, the way may be opened up for more of these undergraduates.
The full-time course would take two years and could be topped up to BSc level with a third year of study. The part-time version would take three or four years, with trainees studying for two days per week. However, teaching for the degree is based on a modular system and staff do not have to commit to the whole course. They can just focus on the relevant vocational parts of it, while still being able to achieve different levels of qualification where desired. Modules will range from microbiology and food science & nutrition to various business modules, with staff brought in from other colleges where necessary.
"People employed in the industry could attend for one or two days per week and a lot of the assessment assignments could be directly related to their workplace," says Sue Guilding, food and drink manager at Hartpury.
Students could explore a range of options to finance their studies, with company funding potentially being topped up from other sources, says Callard. "If people wanted to go down the modular route, we are able to draw down funding from the Higher Education Funding Council, so the cost to the employer is less."
Hartpury is inviting guidance on course content and training methods from food and drink manufacturers and Callard is eager to get them on board. "We have had some involvement from the industry and we are keen to get more. If there were people who wanted to participate in an industrial panel we would be keen to have them."
He stresses that Hartpury is in the process of harnessing equipment that can be used to hone the specialist skills required for both small and large food and drink businesses. In partnership with Campden and Chorleywood Food Research Association, for example, the college has invested £30,000 in a chocolate enrobing machine. It could be used for new product development as well as for training.
Elsewhere, £50,000 has been invested in creating a training facility for the meat and poultry trade in conjunction with butcher Ensors Gloucestershire.
Equipped with a complete refrigeration and butchery unit, the centre goes live in February, with pilot courses taking off in the run up to that. Teaching will cover areas such as sausage making, cutting and curing and poultry processing. Hartpury will be able to use the facilities as a base for related NVQs, meat handling certificates and food management programmes. The unit could also be used to train product development chefs or teach farmers how to diversify and create products that can be sold direct to consumers.
"Meat cutting and processing animals is a skilled business and I think action is needed to prevent the traditional skills being lost and encourage new students into the trade," says Robert Ensor, boss of Ensors who trained in agriculture at Hartpury some years ago. "Working in partnership with Hartpury will put something back into the industry: we will be able to offer a facility to grow and develop the next generation of butchers and poultry workers."
A further £20,000 has been invested in a cheesemaking training facility that has just been opened with the support of Melissa Ravenhill, head and founder of Birdwood Farmhouse Cheesemakers. "She will be delivering short cheese courses and will also be able to talk about the pitfalls of setting up a cheesemaking business," says Guilding. "Our main target is people who want to diversify, such as farmers managing small dairy herds, but it could be appropriate to processors who already make cheeses and are looking to extend what they do."
All these initiatives are just the tip of the iceberg. Hartpury is building on its training resources as we speak, with more to be revealed in due course that could in turn draw more than a few hikers to the sleepy Gloucestershire region. FM
READING UNIVERSITY GETS FOOD SCIENCE AWARD
A £500 annual award for food science students approaching their fourth year at Reading University is being launched by food and drink recruitment specialists Hutchinson Consultancy and Jonas Consulting.
The cash will be given to the student who performs the best during his or her placement year in industry and is designed to counter a lack of graduate confidence in the sector. The course tutor will decide who gets it, with the first such award set to be handed out in January.
Reading University's Food Biosciences Centre of Excellence, the largest department of its kind in the UK, offers four food science undergraduate degrees.
The business driving the award represents a combination of two recruitment firms working with the sector, Hutchinson Consultancy and Jonas Consulting.
Scott Hutchinson, md of Hutchinson Consultancy, says if the award proves successful, he is keen to see it rolled out to other academic institutions offering food science qualifications. "We went for Reading because it's the most high profile of the food tech universities," says Hutchinson. "If it goes well, I have no objections to doing the same for other universities and no objections to increasing the award. But it's the first time we've done anything like this and we need to know how it will be received.
"I've worked in recruitment for the food industry for 15 years. I've got an awful lot out of this industry and I wanted to give something back."
Jane Jonas, director of Jonas Counsulting, says: "Working in recruitment we see the impact of the skills gap every day. It can be impossible to find qualified candidates for well paid, challenging roles. We wanted to take a proactive step in wooing the students and hope that the award will help them feel valued by the industry they are about to join and understand how in demand they are."
Dr Mike Gordon, director of teaching and learning in the Department of Food Biosciences, says: "Many don't realise that starting salaries for food scientists are around £2,000 to £3,000 more than the average for science graduates.
"The Hutchinson Jonas award is a great way of adding value to the course and showing our students that there are plenty of employment possibilities for them once they graduate."
