CONCLUSIONS The scientific excellence of the institute’s work has been forward to the challenges of the future. We hope to continue commended by successive Visiting Groups. As a result of a contributing to research and development for the dairy considerable investment by DAFS, we have extensive industry. As a comparatively small institute, we have survived technological facilities. A viable, symbiotic relationship with and prospered not merely by adapting to changing circum- industry has been established. In 1988, the Hannah Research stances, but by anticipating the change. I f in future we must Institute celebrates its Diamond Jubilee. From its present become more than the providers of universal knowledge, then strong scientific and technological base the institute looks we are ready and willing to change our attitudes.

SYMPOSIUM PAPER

An overview of training in the dairy industry* CHRISTOPHER COOK Milk Marketing Board, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 OEL

INTRODUCTION This paper examines in broad terms the environment in which the dairy industry operates and the various perceptions of it today. I t reviews the challenges facing the industry and consequently the providers of training; the process whereby training needs are identified and met, with particular reference to the industry’s Non-Statutory Training Organization; and it reviews the industry-wide training strategy which finds its expression through that body. Finally, the paper looks at the key training requirements which must be met if the dairy industry is to sustain and increase its prosperity.

THE DAIRY INDUSTRY What is it? To the consumer, whom 1 deliberately mention first, it has been a largely benign, traditional and conservative supplier of staple dietary products such as the doorstep pinta - and increasingly the supermarket carton; a range of hard, soft and crumbly cheeses; a variety of butter products and butter based spreads; as well as yogurts, milk based drinks and so on.

However, perceptions are changing. When people think of milk, cheese and butter, they still think of cows and farms and that well known radio serial ‘The Archers’ - but unfortu- nately now more than ever they also think of European Economic Community mountains, foreign butter and foreign cheeses plus an increasing variety of other milk based products.

Also - and perhaps most importantly - people think of low fat diets.

All of which amounts to an industry under increasing pressures to give value for money, not just in terms of competitively priced products but also in terms of product variety and service. These are all factors critical to industry- wide training needs.

To the 93,000 people who work in the dairy industry in some 4,000 companies, processing about 12 million litres of raw material into bottles, cartons and milk products (Table), the industry looks less and less benign, as rationalization follows

‘Paper given a! symposium on ‘Training for Quality and Profit’. 27-28 October 19x7, London.

Ihirq industry employees hq joh cakgor): April 1986

Manufacturing operatives Processing operatives Retail other workers Retail roundsworkers Retail supervisors Manufacturing supervisors Processing supervisors Transport drivers Plant/vehicle maintenance Clerical Laboratory Management All others Franchisees DTF Manpower Survey Plus estimate of

employees in Scotland

Revised 1987 estimate of franchiseeslone-man BMBs at 8,000 less 2.173

Total 1986 labour force

n,ox I 7.020 2,688

3 1,807 3.402

54 I 669

5,032 4.43 I 6,578 1,713 6,279 2,160 2,173

82,574

t 5,000 87,574

t 5,827 93.401

9.8 8 .5 3.3

38.5 4. I 0.7

6 .0 5.4

2. I 7.6 2.6 2.6

100.0

0.8

x .o

rationalization and leads to fewer and less secure jobs; as the competitive pressures grow inexorably and as traditional dietary habits are called into question. Less liquid milk is being consumed each year, butter consumption has plummeted in the past 10 years, the cheese market is growing, but slowly and not always with home produced cheeses.

EEC quotas have dramatically reduced milk production, farmers are being encouraged to leave the industry and a substantial number of dairy factories have had to be closed down for good.

THE CHALLENGE Quite simply the challenge is to provide profitably a range of dairy products which the consumer wants in the quantity and quality required, while at the same time persuading consumers of the dietary and health benefits of those products. For every single company in the industry this translates to achieving higher productivity and higher sales. Both require skills - and that is where training becomes an industry-wide imperative.

56 Journal of the Sociery of Dairy Technology, Vol. 41, No. 2, May 1988

The government has rightly given training a high priority, believing that substantial improvements in the scale and effectiveness of training will ensure that Britain is more internationally competitive. This objective applies as much t o the dairy industry as any other.

The government through the Manpower Services Commis- sion has also done much to make industry as a whole realize the grave lack of skills that exist in certain sectors. The most obvious ones that spring to mind are in engineering and computing. But this industry faces other skills shortages. Many of our milk roundsmen, depot managers, sales managers, production supervisors and laboratory staff are ill- equipped with the skills needed in the 1980s. For example, how many people who work in the industry are adequately briefed on the dietary issues now so prominent - even to discuss the subject authoritatively with their families: and how many roundsmen have the skills, or even see it as an integral part of their job, to sell the concept of liquid milk, with its proven health advantages, to their customers.

The biggest challenge faces management. There is every reason to suppose that our sector of industry is no better in the provision of management education and development than any other sector: the recommendations of Professor Charles Handy’s report ‘The Making of British Managers’ apply equally to us. In terms of the broad education base and a framework for early business education, giving all those people who are likely to have management or business responsibilities a basic foundation, the British lag behind our major competitors in Europe, Japan and the United States. The concept of continued adult learning - both on the job and through formal courses - is not yet taken for granted: consequently with a few exceptions investment in management training tends to be inadequate. The significance of this within the dairy industry, where the problem is compounded by the fact that the overwhelming majority of companies are very small and can ill-afford the time to send managers away on courses, is that, if training is undervalued for managers, they in turn may tend not to give it enough priority for their staff.

Therefore the challenge for the provider of training is to

develop learning packages which (a) meet business needs and (b) can be adopted with minimum disruption to the day to day running of the businesses.

T H E TRAINING PROCESS Ninety per cent of the training within the dairy industry is carried out by the individual companies. These recognize that training is a key element in the achievement of company profit targets: not training for its own sake but as a n investment to meet clearly defined skill requirements which in the main vary from company to company. Effective training therefore depends on company managers deciding what skills and deve- lopment programmes are needed to ensure short and longer term business success.

However, there is a sizeable element of the training requirement which is common to whole sections of the industry: for example, the training of milk roundsmen in the dietary aspects of the products they sell; the training of sales and depot managers or of engineers. It is to help in the identification of these common requirements, and in the development of appropriate training programmes, that the industry operates its own Non-Statutory Training Organization as part of the services provided by the Dairy Trade Federation - the overall organization is shown in the Figure.

The vehicle for the process of identifying industry-wide needs and providing the training packages to meet them is the Training Policy Committee (TPC). This consists of senior representatives of the following organizations: the Milk Marketing Board, Express Foods Group, Dairy Trade Federa- tion, Unigate Dairies, Associated Fresh Foods, Scotland’s Joint Committee, National Dairymen’s Association, Co-opera- tive Wholesale Society, Northern Dairies and Co-operative Employers Association. Thus large and small companies and cooperatives have a voice in determining the policies and strategies of training in our industry. The TPC therefore acts with authority and ensures forward representation to the government, Manpower Services Commission (MSC) and other training and validating bodies in the United Kingdom.

The Training Committees of the British Dairy Industry’s Training Policy Committee

1987- 1988

DTF Council w I

1 I I 1

I Engineering Working Party

Working Group

Apprentice Training Scheme far the British r - i Dairy Industry

J-, Working Group

c MSC Sub-committee Education Sub-committee Q R E D Creative Lab Techniques

Grants Panel

Working Group u Clearing-House Scheme for Sondwich Students

Organization of the Non-Statutory Training Organization of the Dairy Trade Federation (DTF). MSC = Manpower Services Commission.

Journal of the Society of Dairy Technology. Vol. 41, No. 2, May 1988 51

One particularly important role of the TPC is to maximize the external funding of training which is available from the MSC so long as the programmes concerned meet certain requirements. These funds complement the internal resources not least of which, in the case of industry-wide sales and marketing training, is the Co-Responsibility Fund from which this year, for example, the industry has agreed to apply nearly f270,000 to training.

The TPC is the main point of contact between the industry and the MSC - henceforth to be called the Training Commission - which has been given the responsibility, since the abolition of most of the statutory training boards, of ensuring that the various sectors of industry and commerce give training its necessary priority for the welfare of the British economy as a whole.

The MSC/Training Commission is adopting an increasingly pro-active role and there may well be legislation in 1988-89 to strengthen industry’s commitment to training. Its numerous initiatives, such as in the field of vocational qualifications, have to be interpreted in the context of each industry’s require- ments. Much of the TPC’s work is devoted to this end.

Another vital role of the TPC is to develop and sustain strong working relationships with a number of important education establishments. These include the Business Technician Education Council, City & Guilds, Royal Society of Arts, Reading, Auchincruive, Cannington, Seale Hayne, Reaseheath and Brackenhurst. These colleges are so important to the industry because the T P C relies heavily on them for a major contribution to its project groups and for their in- college training of supervisory and technical staff and, to further these relationships, we are currently developing a secondment scheme for college lecturers to spend time in dairy companies.

Finally, of course, as 1 have already mentioned, because of its highly representative composition, the TPC is uniquely placed to identify common training needs, to develop specific dairy industry initiatives to cater for them and, crucially, to identify current and potential skill shortages.

ORGANIZATION O F THE TRAINING POLICY COMMITTEE

The TPC, which meets about five times a year in full committee, operates through three subcommittees - Engineering, MSC and Education - and a number of working groups (Figure). The latter are variable, depending on the current projects.

The Table gives details of dairy industry employees by job category as at April 1986. From these it will be seen that by far the largest number, 56,000, work in the retail sector, 19,400 are in processing and 18,000 are in manufacturing. It is also significant that six companies employ 52% of the total workforce. The industry experienced a spate of company takeovers and rationalization in 1986-87. Most of the industry’s activities are carried out in 770 processing dairies, of which half are on-farm, and in 335 dairy product manufacturing creameries which are capital intensive; and each day some 37,900 retail roundsworkers deliver milk to 14 million households.

These statistics are important because they reveal the scale of the industry. The training task for all the 4,000 organizations is immense. Clearly, no industry-wide body such as the TPC can hope to d o more than act as a catalyst and concentrate on the main common issues. Fortunately labour turnover has in the past been low; long service with the same company has been the norm and therefore there has been considerable stability. The exception t o this situation is retail roundsmen among whom there tends to be high labour turnover of new starters.

New technology in all areas of activity - operations and administration - is a growing feature, which is another significant element of the training requirement.

THE INDUSTRY’S TRAINING STRATEGY The development of a training strategy for the industry’s Non- Statutory Training Organization (NSTO) must recognize what dairy companies perceive as (heir training needs and not necessarily those suggested by the MSC or the DTF. The industry’s strategy comprises four interwoven strands:

1 Individual companies want to p.ursue commercial training solutions unecumbered by government agencies or training of a ‘social’ nature. Therefore state information and discussion documents are required to be absorbed by the NSTO on behalf of the industry and followed up with effective representation.

2 Companies want to optimize the availability of government and EEC grants and learning material develop- ment funds. They d o not require or seek documentary advice on how to conduct their training.

3 The industry perceives that it requires specific training and learning material for particular categories of staff. Also i t wants the provision of a Clearing House Scheme for Sandwich Course Students, a training scheme for engineering apprentices and successful linking into the new scheme for National Vocational Qualifications.

4 Finally, the industry seeks a cost effective NSTO that is optimally staffed and resourced, and makes effective use of company representatives on working parties. Its role is to be demand-led.

These strategic imperatives translate today into a number of key tasks:

(i) Manpower dafa collecfion: A manpower/training needs/skills shortageltraining cost survey in 1987-88. Col- laboration in a food industry ‘mapping exercise’ of vocational qualifications and resources in 1987-88.

(ii) Planning processes: The submission of a detailed plan to the MSC by October 1987 outlining the industry intentions in the area of vocational qualifications, where much work has already been done.

(iii) Represenfalion: The vocational interests of the dairy industry require increased representation on at least three college-based vocational educational committees relevant to the interests of the industry by August 1989. National Economic Development Council interest in the dairy industry training affairs requires the evaluation of appropriate projects emanating from the Food and Drink EDC so that they may be absorbed, as appropriate, into our industry’s training plan.

(iv) Training programmes: The provision of relevant and cost effective training packages and programmes suitable for use by large and small companies alike.

AN OVERVIEW OF TRAINING NEEDS IN OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS

From the research already undertaken during the past three years, the following needs have emerged:

(i) Senior managers: Training in strategic planning and leadership. It is notable that, with the exception of sales managers, all management training has up to now been carried out by individual companies and has not involved the TPC. For the future, the TPC may well have a useful role in advising companies, particularly those without a training function, on the new techniques of training, such as distance learning, which are gaining credibility as highly economical and effective aids to training.

(ii) Sales managers: Training in matters associated with product diversification and changing patterns of retail outlets.

(iii) Sales stuff: Improved sales skills and product knowledge - and enhanced awareness of security on the round. For example, the TPC is currently working on a Diet Project to enhance selling skills, which has possible relevance to a much wider population of employees.

(iv) Depot managers: Training in recruitment techniques to reduce labour turnover, and improved understanding of security on the rounds and in the depots.

58 Journal of the. Society of Dairy Technology, Val. 41. No. 2. May I988

(v) Supervisors: Product knowledge, staff management and job instruction skills. A major new retail training package using distance learning was launched earlier this year, consisting of 12 modules each requiring between eight and 40 hours of training. Demand is very encouraging.

(vi) Trainers: More knowledge of National Vocational Qualifications and open or distance learning techniques.

(vii) Product development staff: Increased skills and knowledge relevant to new product development.

(viii) Laboratory staff: Improved skills in basic laboratory techniques and the development of a National Vocational Qualification.

(ix) Distriburion sfaff: Improved stock management/rota- tion techniques, together with more effective route planning/logistics skills.

(x) Engineers: Development of multiskilled craftsmen through skills testing.

(xi) Operatives: Extension of current skills to include quality assurance and elementary maintenance and diagnostic skills.

(xii) Drivers of heavy goods vehicles: Develop existing training procedures to achieve a National Vocational Qualification.

(xiii) Apprentices: Increase the number of engineering apprentices offered training.

These then are the areas of need identified by the industry. The TPC is or will be concerned with helping to meet most of

them - and others, because the list of tasks is not static. For example, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the shortage of computer programmers and analysts is likely to be as chronic, i f not more so, as the shortage of engineers. The TPC’s role here is, firstly, t o ensure that the industry is aware of this trend and, secondly, if the demand for some form of industry-wide initiative becomes apparent, to provide one.

Another area of new demand may be total quality manage- ment, particularly in the context of meeting the challenge of imported products - including, from 1989, pasteurized liquid milk. The search for quality is truly common to all. (Incident- ally the TPC is currently discussing with the MSC the funding of a project concerned with improving operators’ competence in the milk reception and pasteurization processes.)

Training is about improving the performance of the business through individual development. In the hectic day to day commercial life of the industry’s 4,000 companies training may all too easily be relegated in the list of immediate priorities. The industry is therefore well served by having an active NSTO which, by providing a professional service, helps to maintain the overall training impetus. But scarce resources within the NSTO must be directed to where they will have the greatest impact. This requires an industry-wide training overview and a strategy that recognizes how companies and cooperatives perceive their individual needs and at the same time is sufficiently supportive and innovative to anticipate future developments and requirements at national and sector levels.

SOCIETY’S PUBLICATIONS

The following publications are currently available from the Society’s offices:

REMITTANCE MUST BE RECEIVED BEFORE BOOKS ARE FORWARDED

Members Non-members

Pasteurizing plant manual ( 1 983) f 8.00 f 11.00 Ice cream manual ( 1 983) f 5.00 f 7 . 0 0 Short shelf life products (published in late 1986) i 10.00 f 13.00 Cream Processing Manual ( 1975) f 2.50 f 3.50

(A new Cream manual is at present being edited by Dr J Rothwell)

Milk and Whey Powder ( 1980) f 3.00 f 4.50 Bottle washing ( 1 968) f .60 f 1.00

A NEW IN-PLACE CLEANING MANUAL IS AT PRESENT BEING EDITED BY MR A J D ROMNEY

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY’S OCTOBER 1986 SY MPOSlUM ON ‘TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF MILKFAT PRODUCTION AND UTILISATION’ ARE AT PRESENT BEING EDITED BY MR K K RAJAH

Journal of the Sociery of Dairy Technology, Vol. 41. No. 2. May I988 59