By Bertrand Emond - 5 August 2016

VUCA doesn't sound very nice... but it is a great way of describing the world we live in: Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous! This means that a critical success factor for businesses and for individuals is their ability to learn new knowledge and skills quickly and to apply them effectively. One of my favourite training quotes is from Zig Ziglar:

"The only thing worse than training good employees and losing them, is not training your employees and keeping them"

A significant number of businesses are embracing "corporate learning", and have set up training or learning and development academies; they describe themselves as learning organisations and are keen to optimise "learning transfer".

Individuals are recognising the importance of Continuing Professional Development and Lifelong Learning; they are under pressure not only to have expertise in a particular field, but also the ability to collaborate across various disciplines, and be collaborative and empathetic.

As widely reported, most companies we work with claim to have a significant shortage of appropriate staff; this shortage is due to a number of factors including:

• High staff turnover including people retiring (loss of expertise)
• Not attracting enough new blood
• Heavy reliance on overseas nationals/agency staff
• Lack of availability and awareness of appropriate training
• Poor training
• Unwillingness to develop existing staff because of:
  • pressure to reduce costs
  • fear of losing staff that have just been trained
  • lack of proof of cost benefit

To help members deal with these challenges and issues, we have:

• Set up a Training & Development Group; its aims include:
  • assisting in making the right decision for businesses when it comes to ensuring that staff are trained appropriately and cost effectively
  • assisting in planning the right training in the right way, at the right time
  • providing a greater understanding of the tools available when considering training
  • providing knowledge of the support/training that is available to food businesses
  • providing opportunities to share and feed back on industry developments
• Set up a Culture Excellence Programme in collaboration with Taylor Shannon International, including a food safety and quality culture assessment tool and associated improvement plan as well as a series of best practice events
• Reviewed our offering to meet the needs of flexible learning. This involved looking at different channels and times of delivery

Our training offering is varied ‐ from standard training courses, conferences, seminars and briefing events, through activities such as Member Interest Groups and other networking events, including Campden BRI Day (our annual Open Day), to printed and audiovisual material ‐ publications, databases, webinars, videos and podcasts.

We also give clients access to subject matter experts, and mentor company specific project based learning, from being a partner in corporate academies to supporting myCPD and schemes such as IFST Chartered Technician, Chartered Scientist, and Food Safety Professional, BBSRC Advanced Training Partnerships and IFT Certified Food Scientist (CFS).

We also help students directly through placements and work experience opportunities, the IFST Career LaunchPad and Foodstart, the National Skills Academy initiatives, and Ecotrophelia, a student team-based product development competition, which we host each year at our Open Day.

For more information about training please get in touch

Campden BRI ‐ helping to fill the skills gap.

About Bertrand Emond

Bertrand has a wealth of knowledge, experience and connectivity from working here at Campden BRI since 1988. Bertrand has a Master's in Food Science & Technology (Dijon, France) and a Master's of Business Administration (Bath, UK).

Bertrand is passionate about supporting the industry in the areas of skills, knowledge, training, learning and development, competency and achieving culture excellence through behaviour change. He won the 2020 BRCGS CEO Europe Award recognising his commitment and contribution to food safety and the 2014 Heinz Award for Excellence for Leadership in Collaborative CPD for the Industry (in particular for his role in supporting competency and CPD, promoting the food industry as a career of choice, and providing collaboration between all stakeholders).

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