Content for an innovative new ‘Achieving Food Manufacturing Excellence’ qualification has been created by Improve, in partnership with employers. It’s one of the food and drink sector skills council’s new family of work-based Improve Proficiency Qualifications (IPQs), which are being developed for people employed in the food and drink industry in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
For food and drink industry employees in Scotland, Improve has also drafted content for two new pathways, at levels 2 and 3, within the Scottish Vocational Qualification (SVQ) in Food Manufacture. These pathways will play a similar role to the ‘Achieving Food Manufacturing Excellence’ IPQ by assessing standards in a variety of approaches to productivity and improvement tailored to the industry.
Derek Williams, Improve’s development director, said: “These new qualification options will be innovative in the way that they are linked to continuous improvement and the constant drive to boost performance in all areas of food and drink manufacturing. Companies are always looking to move forward and better their performance at all levels and this qualification can help achieve that.
“This is about taking a holistic view of what’s required for a company to improve. These are business-critical qualifications and are powerful qualifications in respect of improving the performance of individuals at whatever level they work at or whatever job they have within a company.”
The ‘Achieving Food Manufacturing Excellence’ IPQ is made up of two components. Firstly, it looks at strategy, leadership and management, with a particular focus on managing and making change effective in a way that benefits the company. Secondly, it looks at tried and tested tools and techniques taken from approaches such as lean manufacturing and sustainable business strategy and focuses on their application in food and drink.
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