MyKnowledgeMap

Food & Drink Academy

Client:

Improve - food & drink sector skills council

Primary Aim :

To develop a virtual hub for Improve's new national Food & Drink Skills Academy, providing an infrastructure for e-learning that will eventually range from apprenticeship level to degree level.

Key Challenge:

To provide an online training infrastructure for an industry employing over 650,000 people in eleven specialised sectors, including drinks manufacturing, bakery, dairy, meat & poultry, food manufacturing & processing, fresh produce and confectionary.

Solution:

MyKnowledgeMap is developing a bespoke academy infrastructure that will co-ordinate skills analysis and training and that is tailored to the needs of the food and drink sectors.

This virtual e-learning hub will work in conjunction with a physical excellence network comprising accredited employers, colleges, universities and private training providers.

Individual learners and companies will be able to access skills in whatever form suits them best: virtual hub, or through workbooks or CD-Rom, or via colleges and trainers.

The e-academy skills portal will be built on the lines of MKM's highly successful Retail Academy portal, Retail Detail. It will contain:

• Productivity tools
• Skills gap analysis
• A range of highly interactive e-learning and training
• Level 3 and 4 management training

Five major interactions - including the Japanese Ishikawa tool, a bottle-neck interaction and cost & complement interaction - will form part of the e-learning, including case studies, and walk-through examples, and will also be available as tools for use by learners within their actual working environment.

There will be a platform of generic e-learning, including skills such as basic numeracy and literacy, together with skills training in areas such as lean manufacturing. This will be customisable by each of the eleven food & drink sectors. Trade associations will be able to top up the training for their sector, adding their own range of documents and e-learning. There will be a flexible pricing structure, adaptable to the needs of both smaller and larger enterprises.

Implementation:

The Academy, with its virtual hub and five centres of excellence, will be launched in September 2006.