UK’s First Degree Apprenticeships to Support Higher Level Skills for Food Manufacturing

New degree apprenticeships will help to deliver higher level skills needed by the food manufacturing sector, thanks to a major funding award from the Government. The University of Lincoln’s National Centre for Food Manufacturing (NCFM) will lead the pioneering project to deliver the country’s first degree apprenticeships in Food Engineering, Technical Management and Operations Management as part of a national programme to develop new opportunities for apprentices.

NCFM, based in Holbeach in south Lincolnshire, has secured a share of the £4.5 million Degree Apprenticeship Development Fund to deliver the new courses in collaboration with Sheffield Hallam University and the National Skills Academy Food & Drink (NSAFD). Together, the organisations have formed the Degree Apprenticeship Food Industry Partnership.

Professor Val Braybrooks MBE, Dean of the University of Lincoln’s National Centre for Food Manufacturing, is the Project Leader for the Degree Apprenticeship Food Industry Partnership. She said: “The Government’s drive to grow degree apprenticeships has been well received by employers and universities. Degree apprenticeships offer an exciting new way to deliver the higher level skills needed by the industry, with employers and universities working together to develop high quality workplace training complemented by part-time, flexible degree level study, which will both attract young talent and reward and enhance the skills of existing employees.”

Funding for the new degree apprenticeships was announced today (Thursday 10th November 2016) by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). This first phase of the degree apprenticeships initiative will see the development of 18 projects involving higher education providers and employers working in partnership to develop apprenticeships ready for apprentices starting in September 2017.Designed by employers, universities and professional bodies, degree apprenticeships will deliver high-tech and high level skills and offer an alternative to the traditional degree course. Bringing together university study with paid work, degree apprentices spend part of their time at university and part with their employer.

Professor Braybrooks continued: “The food and drink industry represents the single largest manufacturing sector in the UK, contributing more than £100 billion to the national economy. The sector is highly innovative and is already adopting many advanced technologies, which require ready access to higher level skills – these three new degree apprenticeships are specifically designed to address that need.

“The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and many leading food businesses including Nestle, 2 Sisters Food Group, Princes and Moy Park, are directly supporting the development of these three degree apprenticeship programmes, which are being developed to tackle the higher level skills gap in food engineering, technical management and operations management.”

Angela Coleshill, Competitiveness Director at the FDF, said: “The food and drink industry will need 130,000 new recruits by 2024 to meet the skills needs of our sector and we believe this type of collaborative working between industry and educational institutions will provide us with the next generation of our industry’s advanced engineers and leaders.”

The new Degree Apprenticeship Food Industry Partnership brings together two centres of excellence for the food industry, and draws on the established engineering departments at the University of Lincoln and at Sheffield Hallam University. Dr Martin Howarth, Director of Sheffield Hallam University’s National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering, explained: “We are very pleased to be leading the development of the Food Engineering degree apprenticeship course on behalf of the partnership. The sector is facing a skills gap particularly in engineering and we believe that the degree apprenticeship in Food Engineering will radically help to address this.”

Justine Fosh, Chief Executive of the NSAFD, said: “The NSAFD are working with employers and the universities to develop the employer led ‘industry standards’, which are pivotal to the new degree apprenticeships, and we will promote these new opportunities in the sector to young people through our ‘Tasty Careers’ initiative. We are elated that the food and drink manufacturing industry will be at the forefront of these developments, which are set to transform higher level skills into the future.”

Employers and students wishing to find out more about the new degree apprenticeships are invited to contact dafip@lincoln.ac.uk, or phone the Degree Apprenticeship Food Industry Partnership on 01406 493000.

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