Poultry sector leads the way on staff training

South Green Enterprise Centre in rural Norfolk feels a million miles from the poultry sector with its modern offices, conference facilities and exclusive Bistro, which at the time of my visit had a menu celebrating the Chinese New Year.

But in fact this park is a national “Food Centre of Excellence” and home to Poultec. In a little over 11 years, this company has grown from a couple operating from their home to become the largest provider of poultry NVQs, employing 55 staff.

Poultec in its latest initiative is helping the poultrymeat sector lead the way on setting standards for training, which is set to revolutionise training and staff development right across farming and the wider food sector.

Founder Edward Bales talks exclusively to Poultry World on how he built up the company and gives his views on the future of staff training.

GENERAL

• What is the size and structure of Poultec?

The Poultec Group is made up of a number of private businesses: Poultec Training delivers government-funded training programmes, such as Apprenticeships and Train to Gain, while South Green Park runs our conference facilities, serviced rental offices, childcare centre and restaurant as well as our events, such as the July Beer Festival.

Thirdly, Poultec Consultants is the branch of the company that offers more bespoke training and consultancy services. Overall, we employee more than 55 staff.

• When did it all start and why did you set up the company?

My interest in poultry started at the age of 19, when I set up my own free-range egg unit on the family farm, producing eggs for Jeff Vergerson of Countryside Products, which is now part of Noble Foods.

I first got involved in training through assisting the setting up of a poultry training initiative at Easton College. I then went on to establish Poultec Training in 1997 with my wife Rebecca, working from an office in our home. Our aim was to offer work-based training and consultancy on a national scale.

While Rebecca managed the office and produced the workbooks and training materials, I travelled the country delivering NVQ training and assessments to major poultry businesses.

• How did you grow the business over the subsequent years?

As Poultec has grown, we have diversified into a wide range of training areas. When I started the business, I concentrated on the poultry farming sector, but soon saw the need for a similar approach in the foods manufacturing sector and brought in the expertise of Neale McArdle to run this.

In 2000 Nathan Raines joined and for the past five years has been managing all of Poultecs agricultural training provision.

• What are your main activities now?

For the past two years, we have been working with the poultry meat industry to establish the Poultry Meat Training Initiative and Poultry Passport scheme.

We have just been awarded the Training Quality Standard (TQS), sponsored by the Learning and Skills Council and we were recently awarded the title of National Skills Academy Champion for Meat and Poultry which is an excellent recognition of the high standard of specialist training offered to the industry.

• You established the South Green Park Enterprise Centre, what is this?

South Green Park is where Poultec is based, but it has also been developed as a training and conference centre which houses training suites, conference rooms, IT suites and a fully licensed restaurant – Café Verde. In 2007, we opened the second building on the site which was the Norfolk Food Centre of Excellence which as well as having additional training rooms houses our butchery training suite, product development kitchen and industry resource library.

TRAINING

• How does the poultry sector compare with other farming sectors in terms of training?

We have been working with the poultry sector for more than 10 years and in this time, we have seen training become more widely recognised as a vital component of business and staff development. The poultry industry has always been at the forefront of innovation in training, as demonstrated by the Poultry Meat Training Initiative.

• Are you just involved with NVQs?

No, we also offer a wide range of short courses which are aimed an increasing and refreshing knowledge in subjects such as poultry welfare, hygiene and biosecurity, and Food Safety. Poultec has also developed a range of leadership and management courses and are the approved Sage Accountancy Training Centre for the East of England.

Poultec have also been offering an apprenticeship programme for young people in the industry for about 10 years. In total, we delivered more than 3000 qualifications across the food sector in 2007.

• How can the poultry sector attract new entrants?

It has an aging workforce and there is growing concern about the lack of young people choosing a career in poultry production.

To come up with some solutions, we need to consider the reasons why young people do not see the poultry industry as a feasible career for them to follow. Possible factors are a lack of awareness regarding the opportunities available, working conditions and a perceived lack of career progression.

All of these factors can be addressed in some way – some as simply as providing more information and education on the opportunities available in the industry.

Working conditions on most poultry farms have improved considerably in recent years with better facilities now supplied for staff. But again this is not the general perception young people have about the industry – we need to promote the positive aspects of the industry, as we do through our apprenticeships.

POULTRY PASSPORT

• One way to attract new entrants is by having a poultry passport. What is it?

The poultry passport scheme is the new electronic training recording system, which is linked to the Poultry Meat Training Initiative (PMTI).

We were originally approached by the Assured Chicken Production Technical Group to look into an electronic system which would reduce the instances of non-compliances for lack of training and training records during farm audits. An industry working group, including the NFU and British Poultry Council, came up with minimum training requirements for different job roles within the industry.

Benefits of the system include assistance with assurance scheme compliance, better training records, reducing the cost of unnecessary re-training and offering employers an easy, cost effective way of maintaining training records.

On top of this, it provides staff with skills passports which underlines commitment to training, increases their self worth and confidence – which together helps stabilise workforces and increase productivity.

• Who is involved and how will it work?

Poultec is the administrators of the system and is responsible for verifying and maintaining training records on the system.

Companies purchase their passports from Lantra (the system developers) and we will then organise the uploading of current training information. Each member of staff receives a personal passport, which they can access via a secure login and the company has the ability to view all their own staff’s records to search for training records and check for expired courses.

• Has there been much interest since its launch in September 2008?

There has been an excellent response from the industry with about 2000 passports already being booked. We hope to double this by the end of the year.

THE FUTURE

• Could you see poultry passports being adopted by other sectors, such as eggs or even non-poultry?

We would be very keen to explore the possibilities of expanding the passport into the egg sector and even the meat processing sector. We have already developed in conjunction with Lantra a Poultec Passport which is offered to the other industries we work with.

Edward Bales in a minute

• Where were you brought up and educated?
• I was brought up on our family farm in Mattishall, Norfolk and went to Bracondale School Norwich.
• What did you want to be when you left school?
• A farmer and speedway rider.
• What was the last book you read?
• Step on a Crack by James Patterson.
• How do you relax?
• Watching my three children participate in football, swimming and gymnastics, and going to watch Kings Lynn speedway team who Poultec sponsor.