The National Skills Academy for Food and Drink (NSAFD) is to launch Tasty Careers Scotland – an initiative to promote jobs and careers in the food and drink industry to young people – at a series of events across Scotland this month.
The Tasty Careers campaign, the first programme of its kind in Scotland, brings together industry career information and live industry vacancies to make them instantly accessible to young people and to help secure the next generation of food and drink manufacturing talent.
The newly launched campaign website features a dynamic interactive careers map, straight-talking descriptions of dozens of typical job roles across disciplines including production operations, logistics, buying, engineering and marketing, along with progression routes, salary expectations and suggested qualifications. The launch will take place across three ‘Skills Scotland’ events throughout October in Edinburgh on 29 October and will bring together Scottish employers, colleges, universities, training providers and industry advisers before 2,500 visitors.
Justine Fosh, Chief Executive of NSAFD, said: “Food and drink manufacturing is Scotland’s largest manufacturing sector, worth £10.4bn. The sector employs 43,800 people, with annual exports of more than £5.3bn and a growth target of £16.5bn by 2017 – but we need to recruit thousands more new people into the industry to meet that growth.
“The opportunities within the industry are vast and varied and Tasty Careers Scotland is a great platform to encourage young people into food and drink manufacturing, as well as being a solid recruitment pipeline for businesses within the sector.”
The NSAFD, which is the main source of training, careers and information for the UK’s food and drink industry, as well as being the mouthpiece for the industry, is working in partnership with several other Scottish institutions on the Tasty Careers initiative, including Lantra, Skills Development Scotland, Scotland Food & Drink Federation, Quality Meat Scotland and Scottish Bakers, all of whom will feature at the Skills Scotland events.
Demonstrations on the Tasty Careers Scotland stand during the events will include cup cake decorating from Scottish Bakers, burger making from Quality Meat Scotland and sensory testing from Scotland Food and Drink Federation.
Further information is available from www.tastycareersscotland.org.uk
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