Liz Pattison

The National Skills Academy for Food and Drink & Improve’s head of skills solutions told the Business Leaders’ Forum that a lot had been achieved in terms of reforming qualifications and funding of industrial partnerships, in the last year.

Liz Pattison said: “The skills minister Matthew Hancock has been harassed within an inch of his life in the last three to four months and now accepts food manufacturing is important to the UK economy and we are getting our industrial partnership back on the table.​

“Essentially, industrial partnership is giving the industry the choice to develop the qualifications for the skills in the sector rather than qualifications being developed 10 years after changes in technology and legislation.”​

She also called on food and drink firms and the government to invest in attracting young people into the sector and to look after them once they had done so.

Pattison warned businesses about the challenges to avoid when looking to train people in high-level apprenticeships for the food sector.

“The challenge is it’s only cost effective and worthwhile for a provider to do if the numbers are there. So it’s about finding the right clusters of organisations to work together.”​