Eating into the skills gap

The food and drinks industry is facing a looming skills crisis says Bertrand Emond. But there are several ways the next generation of food scientists can be encouraged…

The food industry has changed dramatically over the last 20 years. There is now an increased pressure for better food safety measures, improvements to food quality, changing regulatory requirements, new emerging technologies and processes, not to mention consumers’ growing appetite for new product innovations, issues of traceability and global sourcing. This has placed a demand for a wide range of skills from its workforce. With no sign of the pace of change slowing in the industry, there is also a need for continual skills development.

By 2020, it’s predicted the UK food and drink industry will need more than 170,000 new employees to meet demand and replace retiring workers. With potentially so many vacancies across the sector - from food science and technology to R&D and engineering - it’s essential that industry not only tackles the issue of skills and training, but also works hard to attract young talent and raise awareness of the food industry as a career option for scientists and technologists. This is an issue not just for the food and drink industry, but for the whole UK economy since food and drink accounts for 16% of the UK’s whole manufacturing sector.

One of the major concerns that emerged from Campden BRI’s recent consultation on the scientific and technical needs of industry was the skills shortage. The consultation, which was the largest and most comprehensive of its type, involved the whole food supply chain. It included an online survey of Campden BRI’s 2,400 member companies, face to face feedback via 13 member interest groups as well collective intelligence gathered from Campden BRI’s day-to-day discussions with members, clients and other organisations. The skills shortage and need to promote careers within the food and drink industry emerged as a key issue with all parts of the food chain from primary producers, processors and manufacturers to retailers and food service outlets.

The food and drink industry offers a wide range of rewarding careers, from laboratory jobs such as R&D and analytical roles through production, operations, supply chain management, quality systems etc. However, a recent survey of 700 young people found that two thirds said they would not consider a career in the food and drink industry and 71% were unaware of career opportunities available. A number of schemes have been launched to address this important challenge and attract new entrants to food and drink and raise the profile of the industry.

In 2011, IFST (Institute of Food Science and Technology) in collaboration with Campden BRI launched its Student LaunchPad scheme which aims to enhance students’ understanding of the applications of food science in the sector. The one day events, which have been hosted at Campden BRI, include presentations from industry leaders and provided the students with the opportunity to talk to industry mentors about careers in food and drink.

Placements are also a great way to get students interested in the industry and many companies provide opportunities. Last year Campden BRI company hosted 20 one week work experience placements for GCSE and A Level students, a handful of one year work placements for degree level students as well as several PhD studentships.

In 2013 Campden BRI and IFST launched Ecotrophelia - an EU-wide Dragons’ Den style competition that promotes innovation and creativity among students interested in a career in the food industry. Ecotrophelia challenges teams of students from UK universities to develop innovative, eco-friendly food and drink products. The competition is supported by many big industry names including Marks & Spencer, PepsiCo, Tesco, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Sainsbury’s and Warburtons and a total prize fund of £3,500.

To mark its 50th Jubilee in 2014, IFST launched FoodStart, which provides a free-to-use platform for any food-based employer to post work experience placements, under graduate placements, internships and holiday jobs free of charge.  Students using the website are encouraged to log and track their individual experiences, building towards a specially recognised portfolio of experience – a ready-made springboard into a career in the food sector.

Most recently, Campden BRI took part in the Institute of Grocery Distributors’ Feeding Britain’s Future initiative. In collaboration with the local Job Centre Plus, Campden BRI hosted a group of 12 local young unemployed people and gave them an insight what it’s like to work in food science, opening the door on the sort of work undertaken at their research laboratories in the Cotswolds.

As well as attracting new talent, there are many schemes which promote professional development in the food and drink industry.

At the end of last year, IFST launched a food safety professionals register at the House of Lords. IFST’s Register of Food Safety Professionals offers recognition to food safety personnel following a robust and independent assessment process through IFST. The professional accreditation demonstrates an individual’s high level of skills and experience within food safety, as well as commitment to lifelong learning and excelling as a food professional.

Technicians play a vital role within all aspects of the food sector. Whilst someone may not have the term ‘technician’ within their job title, there are many people across the whole of the food sector employed in such roles within areas such as food safety, food analysis, product quality and food processing operations. IFST also runs a Registered Science Technician (RsciTech) scheme which provides professional recognition for those working in technical roles.

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) runs a Certified Food Scientist (CFS) scheme. CFS, which is the only global certification for food science professionals, recognises the applied scientific knowledge and skills of global food professionals and provides a universal way to identify, cultivate, and retain top talent. Campden BRI provides the training course for European candidates to prepare them for the exam.

Advanced Training Partnerships (ATPs) offer postgraduate level training to employees working in UK agri-food industries. There are three partnerships worth approximately £13M within the ATP initiative. Campden BRI is an industrial partner on the Agrifood ATP and Food ATP, delivering some of the modules and providing input and support to manage the programme.

Most recently the government has launched the new Industry Skills Partnership covering the whole of the food and drink manufacturing and processing sector. The partnership is led by businesses who identify their skills needs and use government funding to develop and expand training programmes which support innovation, technical skills and food science.

A highly-skilled and innovative workforce is essential for continued successful growth of companies. With business, professional organisations and government working together consistently to support schemes to promote the industry and address the skills gap, the food and drink industry can look forward to a bright future.

Food for thought

James Huscroft tells us about his PhD placement at Campden BRI

At work, I have been given considerably more responsibility, both internally and externally, for both projects and client work.

Some of my most recent achievements include having excellent opportunities to participate in some of the prestigious Campden BRI training courses, delivered by other members of my section. Each course concludes with a test to determine how much was learned. One course was the “Safe Production of Heat Preserved Foods” (previously “Principles of Canning”) which involved reviewing the entire heat-preserved foods sector with specifics related to canning.  This includes cooking the product in retorts to seal integrity and evaluating the potential microbial growth that may occur. As I am working in the section which delivers process validations specifically related to retorting and cooking, this was a major part of my personal as well as professional development.  It allowed me to understand in a far greater depth the potential issues which may occur, and how best to deal with them should they arise. The other course completed was the “Thermal Process Validation” (TPV) course, with an extra day on “Thermal Process Optimisation”. Following the Heat Preserved Foods course, the TPV course went into greater depth allowing me to increase my knowledge on this aspect of the sector. The Optimisation aspect showed me how to use modelling software to work out the end result of a process and, more importantly, looked at how thermal processing causes nutrient denaturation with respect to certain vitamins and minerals.

Internally at Campden BRI, a 3-year Member Funded Research project, focusing specifically on retort processing, was allocated to me for completion having previously been started by another colleague. This necessitated spending a large amount of my time working with the Lagarde pilot-scale retort in the process hall, gathering information in order to compare results and formulate project conclusions. After concluding the trials, my manager Martin George surprised me by delegating responsibility of analysing the gathered data, putting it into a wide range of visual representations and coming up with a conclusion for the results. Following that, I was asked to write the final report.  My initial draft is currently being reviewed by senior Campden BRI management and will be published in the near future.

Contract work to which I have contributed has involved making a considerable number of thermocouples, which is a temperature measuring device made out of two dissimilar metals. Other contract work involved longer-than-usual working days in order to complete trials. The vast amount of work completed during the trials was immensely rewarding, largely because we started getting results!

The author: Bertrand Emond, Head of Membership & Training, Campden BRI