Wales Overview

 The food and drink manufacturing sector is vital to the Welsh economy, providing almost 24,000 jobs and accounting for approximately 5% of the UK’s food and drink manufacturing employment.  

The Welsh sector is made up of almost 700 businesses, generating a turnover of c. £600 million and a Gross Value Added (GVA) of £679 million.  However the food supply chain in Wales employs nearer 180,000 workers and is a major contributor to the Welsh economy. 

 Wales is also home to some well known food and drink manufacturing companies, including Burton’s Foods, Unilever (Best Foods), RF Brooks, Princes, Memory Lane Cakes, Allied Bakeries, SA Brain, Wynnstay Group, First Milk, Dunbia, Dawn Meats and Vion to name but a few.  

There are several key challenges facing the food and drink industry in Wales today;

• Whilst the UK food & drink manufacturing industry is recognised as a world leader in terms of its productivity, the industry does suffer with an ageing population.  In Wales, overall replacement demand for the sector is expected to be 10,000 by 2017. 
• There is a shortage of technical (food scientists and technologists, engineers, electricians) and skilled (especially craft) workers (bakers, butchers, cheese makers).  These problems are evident across the whole food and drink manufacturing industry. 
• The level of training carried out by the sector’s workforce needs to move from basic to higher level provision in order to meet the skills demanded by the sector. 

In order to address these issues, we have established an Employer Forum made up of key employers representing each sub sector of the food & drink industry in Wales.  These businesses act as a consultative group to develop Improve’s Action Plan for Wales.  Similarly, Huw has established a ‘Wales Learner Provider Group’ made up of the key training providers working in the food & drink industry in Wales.  Through developing these key strategic relationships an Action Plan has been drawn up and approved by the relevant stakeholders in Wales, including Government Departments, Careers Wales, Job Centre Plus, Wales TUC and the Higher Education Funding Council which commits to delivering the following;

1. Labour Market Intelligence:
• A detailed skills and labour market intelligence report for Wales is produced annually.

• A ‘Food Supply Chain Project’ will deliver a more detailed analysis of the food supply in chain through a collaborative project involving Improve, Lantra, Skillsmart Retail and People 1st.  This will identify key areas for us to develop innovative ‘pilot solutions’ for the industry as well as evidence for us to lobby Government to ensure the food industry is fully recognised as a priority sector for the Welsh economy.

2. National Occupational Standards and Qualifications:
• Review and revise National Occupational Standards through consultation with employers and submit for approval

• Develop and hand to the Awarding Organisation Forum the Improve Proficiency Qualification titles, structures and units

• Develop a new qualification within the Welsh Bac at Level 2 + 3 called ‘Principle Line of Learning in Manufacturing & Product Design’ offering candidates progression into industry, apprenticeship scheme or Higher Education.

• Develop a level 2 ‘Pathway to Apprenticeship’ framework for colleges that will produce 60 ‘industry ready’ candidates each year.

3. Sector Specific Solutions:
• ‘Promoting Productivity’: Improve’s new ‘Food Manufacturing Excellence’ qualification is an exciting new addition to the portfolio of food & drink solutions available to employers.  Improve will be promoting this new qualification and developing support materials through an ‘Academy’ type network of Wales based providers in the year ahead.
•  ‘Careers Development’: Improve is collaborating with Wales based Higher Education Institutions to launch a new ‘Food Science Conversion Programme’  that will address the shortage of food scientists.  This will deliver a new ‘Masters’ level qualification plus 6 'short courses' and bursary scheme.  Improve will also produce a booklet (called ‘Tasty Careers’) containing case studies relating to key occupations along the entire food supply chain to help attract new entrants to our industry.
• ‘Sweet Success’: A series of case studies will be produced around examples of best practice undertaken by food & drink companies based in Wales.  This will include ‘Leadership & Management’ and Improve’s new ‘Food Manufacturing Excellence’ qualification
• ‘LearningTogether’: Improve will continue to develop working relationships with the Wales TUC through the ‘Wales Union Learning Fund’ projects.  These programmes will fund the establishment of ‘Learning Centres’ on site for food & drink companies represented by BFAWU, Unite and Communitas.  Key areas to be addressed will be basic literacy, numeracy and IT.
• ‘Connecting the Industry’: Improve will play a leading role in developing the skills action plan for the Welsh Government’s food & drink strategy ‘Food for Wales – Food from Wales 2010-2020’.  This will be driven through the Training & Skills Sub Committee’ and will encourage collaborative solutions for the food supply chain.

 Huw Rees, National Manager Wales