Scottish Bakers, the association which supports the interests of Scotland’s bakery trade and its specialist training arm National Food and Drink Training (NFDT), has announced a partnership with Tesco to run Apprenticeship Standards at Level 2 in their from-scratch bakeries.
Alongside its current Bakery Training offer, Tesco is trialling the new apprenticeship, which will support colleagues in building new skills, enhancing Instore Bakery knowledge and provide the tools to drive product quality in-store.
The scheme will be classed as a ‘Level 2’ Bakery Apprenticeship. The modules which will be covered as part of the scheme are as follows:
- Principles of baking; Principles of bakery ingredients;
- Understand how to manufacture baked goods;
- Maintain quality and solve problems within the bakery;
- Understand how to carry out innovation and new product development in bakery;
- Demonstrate effective teamwork in baking; Produce fermented and enriched doughs;
- Produce cake and pastry products;
- Offer excellent customer service;
- Prepare, display and manage stock in retail bakery.
A spokesperson for Tesco said: “We want all of our colleagues to be themselves and reach their potential – whoever they are, wherever they work and whatever they do. We really look forward to our colleagues having the ability to take part in this pilot and gain a nationally recognised Bakery Level 2 qualification. We also look forward to hearing the feedback throughout in regards to each individual learning journey.”
Participants
The initial pilot programme of seven learners has seen employees from Bishop Auckland, Durham, Oldham, Oxford, Plymouth and Redditch take part in a programme designed to enhance their key skills, knowledge and behaviours in relation to craft bakery with the addition of in-store bakery customer service.
The Tesco spokesperson continued: “The participants are learning hands on scratch baking and so far their colleagues have been delighted to sample fresh bakes such as croissants, bread, Swiss roll, scones and turnovers they have made as part of their learning,”
NFDT training and quality manager, Scott Anderson said: “And we are looking forward to continuing this journey with them.”
NFDT delivers apprenticeships to the bakery and food and drink manufacturing sectors with enlightened businesses seeing the benefits to productivity, quality and efficiency as well as recruitment and retention of staff .
Scottish Bakers chief executive, Alasdair Smith, said: “A major part factor in business growth is attracting new talent in and retaining those skills through their ongoing development. Apprenticeship training helps businesses become more productive and efficient by upskilling their new and existing workforce and delivers other benefits like reduced wastage, lower staff turnover and higher output.
“Investing in people, both new and those already in the workforce, is vital as all food and bakery businesses are under greater pressures than ever before. Apprenticeships are delivered on-the-job, meaning there’s minimal downtime and impact on production capacity while staff develop their skills. Training and assessment are conducted by NFDT’s expert industry trainers to guarantee the quality and relevance of the support provided. We believe more businesses need to recognise and invest in training to ensure their long term sustainability.”
