Alongside its current Bakery Training, Tesco is trialling the new ‘Level 2’ Bakery Apprenticeship, which is designed to support workers in building new skills, enhance their instore bakery knowledge and provide the tools to drive both product quality and customer service.
“A major part factor in business growth is attracting new talent in and retaining those skills through their ongoing development,” said Scottish Bakers CEO Alasdair Smith/
The importance of apprenticeships
“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.”
NFDT has been delivering apprenticeship courses to UK and Scottish companies for over 20 years. The courses can be tailored to meet specific company needs, but have all been proven to provide benefits to productivity, quality and efficiency as well as recruitment and retention of staff .
NFDT’s team of industry-savvy training advisors provide work-based learning to the workforce at a time that suits both businesses and employees, whether its day shift, night shift, back shift or split shifts.
Added Smith, “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.”
Tesco instore training
Seven Tesco employees have already signed up to the Level 2 programme, which is underway in outlets in Bishop Auckland, Durham, Oldham, Oxford, Plymouth and Redditch.
“We want all of our colleagues to be themselves and reach their potential – whoever they are, wherever they work and whatever they do,” said a Tesco spokesperson.
The Bakery Apprenticeship is broken into 10 modules, namely:
- 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
“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.
“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 on the learning journey from each individual."
