Back to school for talent

If the prospect of teaching a group of schoolchildren how to create a delicious product doesn't seem like the best use of your company's time, think again.

Every HR manager worth their salt involved in the food and drink manufacturing sector knows that the industry is crying out for recruits. Sector Skills Council Improve certainly believes that there are considerable benefits for companies willing to engage with young people on their home turf, including attracting future employees.

Forget the images of bored, spotty adolescents more intent on listening to their iPods than learning anything. The evidence is there are plenty of teenagers who are all too willing to get excited about the industry.

One major way that Improve is promoting to capture this wealth of future talent is the Food & Drink Schools Challenge programme. Piloted initially in Scotland four years ago as a joint initiative driven by Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Food & Drink, almost 200 schools are involved in the venture, still mainly in Scotland. It is now in the process of being rolled out across the UK and Improve is calling on food businesses to get involved. So successful is the concept that it has developed a life of its own, with several different organisations, including regional development agencies, becoming involved in organising individual challenges.

For those who don't know how the scheme works, food firms commonly volunteer to set teams of pupils the challenge of designing a new product. They may be from one school or several schools. They are involved in every stage of the project, from coming up with the idea to sinking their teeth into the finished article. "They have to think about the target market, where they would sell the item, the recipe and the process involved in making it," says Sue Fairest, Improve skills development manager. "At the end of the day, there's a trade fair like [the BBC2 programme inviting enterpreneurs to make pitches to investors] 'Dragon's Den', teams present their ideas and get prizes." A representative from the company provides advice and guidance and judges the end result.

The companies involved in the programme are not small fry. A year ago, students at the Ladymeade School in Taunton, Somerset, won the Somerset Food and Drink Manufacturing Challenge for designing a chocolate sundae for Cadbury's chilled desserts range. The event was sponsored by the Somerset Food Alliance, Somerset LinX and the South West Food and Drink Network. Geest subsidiary Uniq Prepared Foods, maker of the Cadbury desserts, was the major company behind the scheme, working with its Isleport Foods subsidiary and Oscar Mayer Foods. The 12-week tournament involved 100 pupils from six schools, all working towards a GCSE in food technology. Since then a host of other challenges have taken place. The latest involved Dornoch Academy in Easter Ross in the Scottish Highlands in March. Winning students worked with manufacturers Harry Gow and Highland Fine Cheeses to create a new ice cream.

In one challenge with much more of a food science flavour, Glasgow Scientific Services (GSS) teamed up with St Patrick's High School and Columba High School in north Lanarkshire. GSS employees challenged 12-year-olds to compare different types of orange juice by examining aspects including constituents, how processing could change nutritional value and why it takes place. Pupils took on roles such as resource manager, recorder and quality controller, using GSS specialist lab equipment at its premises. "Not only did it encourage discovery, it raised the pupils' awareness of science in the food development process," says GSS.

Now Cadbury Schweppes is lending its backing directly to a competition involving 10 schools across the Midlands. Heats will be held in Sheffield and Birmingham, the locations of two major Cadbury plants, in September and October, with the children involved working out their ideas at their schools. Champion teams from each of the schools will lock horns in an area final in Birmingham and Sheffield, held at colleges with food manufacturing equipment. The result is currently expected to be announced in November.

According to Fairest, the competitions are far more than just a bit of fun. "Improve and employers are after increasing awareness among young people about what food manufacturing involves. Employers tell us they often get increased applications for jobs after the events and greater respect from local people. One company even said it got less graffiti round the back of its factory, because they had made an impact on local kids."

Fairest says it's a great way to fight back against the negative perceptions of the industry as a low-paid sector, beset with all kinds of media scare stories. "People don't realise that anyone with a food science degree can now earn £60,000 per year after only a few years' experience."

Since almost the entire programme can be conducted in schools with guidance from the manufacturers involved, companies don't have to worry about the health and safety aspects of having schoolchildren in their factories.

Meanwhile, the immediate benefits for the schools, colleges and pupils taking part are considerable, she says. "The material that goes with it can support teachers of food technology and the challenges can be included within design & technology courses within schools."

The process of devising products can either take place over several lessons or within the context of a day-long event, she adds. "In fact the only negative from the manufacturer's point of view is staff availability. People say they're not sure they can spare the time to supervise such an event. Our role is to ask what they can spare in terms of resources and devise the challenge around that."

If all this has whetted your appetite, now is the time to get on board. Contact Improve to find out more and experience the benefits of the scheme yourself. FM

YOUNG APPRENTICESHIPS ROLLED OUT TO LEEDS

Leeds Thomas Danby College is offering 20 Young Apprenticeships to 14-16 year-old pupils from schools in the Leeds area, starting this September, a separate scheme running alongside the Food & Drink Schools Challenges, complementing them.

Under the terms of the course, students will spend two days every week either studying at the college or involved in work experience with local employers. They will spend the other three days at their own schools, studying parts of the national curriculum, such as English and information and communications technology.

Improve is assisting Leeds Thomas Danby by forming a partnership with local secondary schools, from which students will be recruited. It is also joining with food companies, which have pledged to ensure the skills being taught are relevant.

Leeds is the fourth UK area offering the scheme. Last year, 45 students embarked on trials in Nantwich, Cheshire, Bassetlaw, Nottinghamshire and Ipswich, Suffolk. These pilot schemes were so successful, the government agreed to fund them again this year, enabling the extension of the programme to Leeds.

Young Apprenticeships were announced in 2004 to build on standard apprenticeships, which are only available from the age of 16.

"The Young Apprenticeship is a vital, new initiative helping to attract young people to the food and drink sector," says Terry Fennell, Improve learning frameworks manager. "Food and drink manufacturing suffers from a negative image among youngsters, impacting on the number of recruits we have coming into the industry. The Young Apprenticeship helps us to engage with pupils and get them excited about the interesting and challenging careers on offer in food and drink."

Emma Dunstan, from Leeds Thomas Danby, says: "We already offer Young Apprenticeships in other subjects, so we and the schools involved have already seen the benefit of providing more flexible learning opportunities that involve work placements and hands on learning. The Young Apprenticeship scheme will give local school pupils more options and opportunities. Food and drink manufacturers will also benefit from skilled potential recruits."