Supporting the Food Industry with skills and innovation www.lincoln.ac.uk

The Shifting Sands of the Skills
Agenda
• Employers at the helm of standards and funding
• The role of Local Enterprise Partnerships in economic development and the Agri-food skills agenda www.lincoln.ac.uk

www.lincoln.ac.uk
The University of Lincoln
Established in 2001 now has a student population of 11,722 and 1331 staff.
Top 50 University
The National Centre for Food Manufacturing is a satellite campus situated in Holbeach, in the heart of the largest concentration of Food
Manufacturing businesses in the UK.
Talent pipeline – Academy family

NCFM in The College of
Science
College of
Science
National Centre for Food
Manufacturing
Lincoln Business School
School of Life
Sciences
School of
Computer
Science
School of
Engineering
School of
Pharmacy
School of
Chemistry
School of
Mathematics www.lincoln.ac.uk

developing the industry’s talent and supporting innovation
• Working with employers and partners (LEP, Sector Skills
Council, sector bodies) to raise skills and support innovation
• Specialising in part-time flexible courses for food industry professionals, offering seamless progression:
– Functional Skills, Apprenticeships, Foundation Degrees, BSc (Honours) in Food Manufacture, post graduate
• Supporting 2,500 employees from 300 businesses each year
• Help to engage young people with the sector
• University Academy Holbeach
– 11-18 strategic partnership - a pipeline for new talent
– Lincoln UTC (University Technical College) www.lincoln.ac.uk

Development
Engineering
321
165
Environmental
Technical
HR
Logistics
15
501
19
32
Planning 54
• Quality Technician - £18k to £26k
• Quality/Technical Manager - £36k to £65k
• Factory Manager - £55k to £75k
Quality Assurance 317
Sales and
Marketing
Supply Chain
107
90
Packaging
Hygiene
Operations
30
48
179
Production 279
• Multi-skilled Engineer -£35k-£38k
• Engineering Manager - £60k- £85k
• Logistics Manager - £40k to £60k www.lincoln.ac.uk

• Industry - Microbiological Validation – (Various businesses)
• Industry – Sensory Science – (Various businesses)
• FSA – Effile Poultry Production and MSM (with FRPERC)
• TSB – Assessing Quality in Mushrooms by Rapid Odour
Measurement (Monaghue Mushrooms, Potato Council, others )
• TSB – FILMS Packaging innovation (Bakkavor, M&S, others)
• TSB – Pdx Steam Infusion (Olympus Automation and partners)
• ERDF - LCC - Sustain 2 – innovation and process improvement in Lincolnshire’s food and engineering sectors (SME)
• FP7 - PicknPack – process automation – Manchester University,
Marel and a consortium of European universities www.lincoln.ac.uk

The role of Local Enterprise Partnerships in the skills and innovation agenda – drivers
• Radical government reform to accelerate growth – placing local authorities and LEPs at the helm of economic development (‘No Stone Unturned’ –
Heseltine report 2012)
• Devolution of central funding streams to the 39 LEPs
• Across LEP collaboration encouraged www.lincoln.ac.uk

Aim : sustainable economic growth
Partnership : Private and public sector - industry led
Strategy : Strategic
Economic Plan and investment priorities www.lincoln.ac.uk

The GLLEP’s key sectors for investment
• Agri-food
• Manufacturing
• Visitor economy
Greater Lincolnshire produces/processes over 12% of the UK’s food supply including more than 70% of its seafood and 25% of its vegetables; the sector employs more than 68,000 people across the supply chain with a diverse mix of businesses including Cranswick
Plc, Greencore, Moy Park, Walkers and Young’s Seafood alongside a wide range of primary producers
(Source: GLLEP Strategic Economic Plan) www.lincoln.ac.uk

Almost every:
• Size of business - home to several international major businesses, plus numerous middle sized and small businesses
• Type of produce – fish, meat, ready meals, fresh veg and fruit
• Type of processes – cooking, canning, freezing, chilling, brewing and drinks manufacture, milling, confectionery
Home to:
• Brands – Princes, Tulip, Youngs, Kerry, Humdinger, McCains
• Own label – Bakkavor, Moy Park, Greencore, Produce World
• National and international food community - dynamic www.lincoln.ac.uk

Agri-food sector plan http://www.greaterlincolnshirelep.co.uk
Headline ambition -
‘‘the greater Lincolnshire Agri-food sector will double its contribution to the economy by 2033 through an ambitious programme of investment in productive capacity, skills and knowledge and drive to increase in high value added sales to UK and export markets’’
Challenges:
• Infrastructure
• Access to research and innovation
• Skills, increasingly needed at higher levels www.lincoln.ac.uk

Delivering the skills strategy -
Employment and Skills Board
• Employer led with broad representation
• Informs the LEP of skills priorities and gaps provides intelligence
• Seeks to implement solutions/lobby
• Covers the whole skills agenda, 14-19 education, adult learning and workforce skills and school links
• LEP Food Board – aligning priorities www.lincoln.ac.uk

Employment and Skills Board – intelligence
GLEPP
Board
Food
Board
Employment
& Skills
Board www.lincoln.ac.uk

Changes to Skills Funding
• Funding for adult skills increasingly being channelled through the LEP (and skills capital) from the Skills
Funding Agency
• Competitive and largely SME focussed (at the moment)
• Employment and Skills Board have a role in influencing national calls – working with employers and providers to ensure as much money as possible comes into Lincolnshire www.lincoln.ac.uk

What has the Employment and Skills
Board achieved – some examples
• Increased Apprenticeship uptake (bucking the national trend)
• With JCP developed a ‘food industry’ pathway to help the unemployed
• Secured £1.5 million of additional funding through for the skills (Skills for the Lincolnshire Workforce project)
• Championed ‘Have a go events’ and other activities aimed at raising awareness of food industry careers e.g. Boston College Catering students encouraged to think about careers in the food industry www.lincoln.ac.uk

Employment and Skills
Board – future role
• Working with the LEP and Food Board to produce a sector skills plan for our Agri-food industry to address known skills gaps, predict and plan for future need and fuel the talent pipeline with a vigorous flow of bright young people
• Aligning skills investment with a programme to secure additional applied research projects for GLLEP Agrifood companies www.lincoln.ac.uk

Strategies now in place to address skills shortages, engage young people to feed the talent pipeline and to build our applied research capability
Transformational for the industry and the county – aspiration for world class
AND EVERYONE WANTS TO WORK IN
A WORLD CLASS INDUSTRY………..
www.lincoln.ac.uk

www.lincoln.ac.uk
Please can we be your next generation of food engineers, technologists and managers ……please, please let me!