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Towards a high skill, high wage, high value economySkills Action Plan for theFood and Beverage Sector

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Executive Summary

Food and beverage key stakeholders support the need fortransformation in order for food and beverage companiesto survive in a competitive, global market by:

  • attracting and retaining suitable and sufficientnumbers of employees;
  • up-skilling current workers and providing careerpathways;
  • integrating and applying top talent;
  • innovating and making effective and efficient use oftechnology;
  • predicting skill and labour needs; and
  • enabling labour and capital growth in a productivemanner that supports changing demands of food andbeverage customers.

The Skills Action Plan (below) is being incorporated intothe Food and Beverage Taskforce Development Agenda.

Skills Action Plan for the Food and Beverage Sector
Priority 1: Better Labour Market Information

Forecasting

  • The food and beverage forecasting framework will be implemented and applied to all food and beveragesub-sectors and maintained on an ongoing basis. This would involve food and beverage ITOs (as part of theirstrategic skills leadership role) to assist in the implementation of the framework in conjunction with otherrelevant organisations.
  • The proposed Skills and Training Action Group (STAG) will guide consistency of application of this frameworkwithin the food and beverage sector, improve the framework and test its robustness with respective industryorganisations and training organisations.

Productivity

  • Complete the productivity study currently underway, which will identify productivity issues specific to foodprocessing businesses.
  • The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions will use the findings of the productivity study to inform the WorkplaceProductivity Education Programme and in developing resources for union delegates and future productivityinitiatives.
  • A first phase of science and technology adoption research has been completed. The findings will be takenforward with industry and relevant agencies.

Skill Shortages

  • Information has been gathered for the Skills Working Group on genuine skill shortages and recruitment andretention difficulties for bakers, butchers, chefs, dairy farmers and dairy farm workers, and food technologists.Appendix two outlines ways to address these issues. The Skills Working Group will consider how to best promotethese solutions.
  • Efforts will continue to improve the quality of labour market information about skill shortages in the food andbeverage sector to better inform tertiary education and training strategies and priorities.
Priority 2: More Strategic Investment in Training

Workplace Practices

  • Promote and explore industry best practice and incentives in relation to skills development.
  • Increase employee participation in training and support for the Council of Trade Unions LearningRepresentatives Scheme.Community Awareness (also see priority three – Attractive Careers)
  • Develop learning resource materials for curriculum in primary and secondary schools that reflect theimportance of the food and beverage sector as a major employer and contributor to New Zealand’s economy.
  • Promote careers to parents, youth, teachers and careers advisors that reflects the reality of working in thefood and beverage sector (ie. how sophisticated jobs are now).
  • Support initiatives from the Human Capability Group in Horticulture and Agriculture, which involves a schools’curriculum strategy with goals to increase the profile of the sector, change schools’ perception of the sector,increase the number of people seeking careers in the sector (eg. more science students), and introduceresources across the curriculum. In addition and alignment with this work, it is intended to encourage acoordinated cross sectorial approach to career promotion in schools.

Responding to Changing Occupations and Skill Needs

  • Explore ways to improve the ability of the skills and training system to adapt to rapidly changing and newoccupations.
  • Increase support for initiatives that could be undertaken by Learning Representatives and build on currentwork with a group of ITOs to integrate literacy training with industry training (eg. in seafood and agriculture).
  • Communicate the relationship between high levels of foundation skills in food and beverage businesses andfavourable productivity results.
  • Increase support and encouragement for the uptake of relevant vocational qualifications (inclusive of higherlevel qualifications) that provide a good match to associated job opportunities.
  • Continue and extend active support for alternative employment (preferably in the food and beverage sector)with tailored programmes for individual workers and investment in education and training for employeesaffected by business closures, downsizing and relocations. This would involve working with employers, unions,ITOs, other education providers and agencies of government and local government.

Quality and Relevance

  • The Skills Working Group recommend in relation to the tertiary reform process, that funding must be linked tothe new Tertiary Education Strategy and the Statement of Tertiary Education Priorities. This should include astronger feedback loop between the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and industry and a greater capacityfor ITOs to influence funding and priority setting.
  • The TEC and other government agencies will facilitate greater partnering of delivery between ITOs and TertiaryEducation Institutions (TEIs) to better meet industry needs and enable them to be more responsive to emergingdemand through its profile negotiation process and support for the ITO leadership role.
  • Review the quality and relevance of the large number of food and beverage related qualifications with aview to consolidating them into a smaller number of higher quality courses. In specialist areas, the option ofconsolidating into one centre of excellence in New Zealand should be considered (eg. fishing, dairy and meatprocessing and grape processing).
  • Review the relationships amongst polytechnics, ITOs, industry and unions in setting food and beverage relatedqualifications and ensuring quality and relevance of training.
Priority 3: Attractive Careers

High Quality Workplaces and Career Opportunities

  • The Department of Labour will contract a stock-take of current initiatives in the areas of improving theattractiveness of careers in this sector and promoting opportunities offered. The findings of the stock-takewill be shared with industry.
  • Involve unions in developing solutions including the establishment of industry standards and the uptake oftechnology and other productivity improvements to assist in improving productivity, wages and conditions andtherefore recruitment and retention.
  • Tailor education and training provision for the food and beverage sector to include an increased focus ondeveloping management and leadership capability, including the development of mechanisms to grow thiscapability over time.
PhD Integration
  • The Science and Technology Adoption project has considered the impact of the presence or absence of PhDstudents (or such qualified staff), on businesses’ ability to adopt science and technology.

Over the next few months it is proposed that the SkillsWorking Group continue meeting to monitor progressand completion of three remaining major projects (ie.productivity study, the science and technology adoptionresearch and the career of choice stock-take) andprovide a progress report against the Skills Action Plan.The progress report will also include an outline of howimplementation of the Skills Action Plan will be monitoredgoing forward.

IMPLEMENTATION

A new industry–led group called the Food and BeverageSkills and Training Action Group (STAG) is proposed tobe established to oversee implementation of the SkillsAction Plan.

STAG will consist of the relevant education and trainingorganisations, industry and government agencies. It isanticipated STAG will have a role in collaboration amongfood and beverage education and training providers toachieve more focused provision, by improving the level ofknowledge about the workforce in the food and beveragesector (eg. forecasting and areas of short supply and highdemand); encouraging workplace best practice initiatives(eg. productivity and foundation learning); and increasingalignment between provision of food and beveragequalifications and actual job opportunities within thesector.

There is a general willingness of food and beverage relatedITOs, unions and government agencies to work moreclosely together.

STAG will take issues to Skill New Zealand (a TEC supportedinitiative involving the New Zealand Council of TradeUnions, Business New Zealand and government agencies)as needed to promote awareness about potential trainingoptions and the need for industry support.

In addition to STAG, it is proposed that a WorkforceCentre of Excellence be established, based in the NewZealand Council of Trade Unions. The centre would begoverned by a steering committee with Government,Business, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions, ITOsand other relevant industry organisations. The centreof excellence would ensure worker engagement andcommitment to the delivery of the Food and BeverageSector Development Agenda. The Skills Working Groupsupports this proposal and the opportunity for STAGto both inform and be informed by the centre.

The centre would include complementary actions in threeinteracting and overlapping fields:

  • Skill and engagement of the labour force
  • Innovation and improved application of best availabletechnologies
  • Organisational change to improve collaboration.

The centre will promote workforce excellence through:

  • Engaging with workers in the food and beveragesector
  • Utilising existing worker representatives
  • Building from existing activity and knowledge
  • Developing confidence of workers that their needs andaspirations are reflected in transforming the sector.

The centre will develop a model of worker involvement inindustry development that:

  • Drives the development agenda set out by theTaskforce
  • Integrates a range of initiatives that are relevantto that development agenda (eg. skills enhancement,foundation learning, health and safety, productivity,partnership)
  • Promotes engagement and participation at all levelsin the sector
  • Develops and promotes best practice in the workforcewhere the links between skills, learning, engagement,participation and productivity are understood andpromoted.

The Workforce Centre of Excellence has potential tocomplement the work of STAG and assist in implementingthe Skills Action Plan.

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