Training up helps Alistair gain promotion
12 July 2010
Alistair Scott (32) is technical services manager at Bakkavor’s Tilmanstone Salads facility in Dover. Over the past 15 years Alistair has worked his way up but felt he'd gone as far as he could without further qualifications
He's currently studying towards the foundation degree (Fd) in Food Manufacturing with through the University of Lincoln’s National Food Manufacturing Centre by distance learning.
“I was promoted after starting the course and my commitment to training and improving my skills definitely contributed to getting that promotion,” said Alistair.
“My job includes various things such as dealing with customers, raw material specifications, micro result trending and analysis and auditing our suppliers’ food safety processes, due diligence and so on.
“What I’ve been learning is directly relevant,” he added. “For example, now I have covered the microbiology module I no longer just analyse the trends when I receive results but can understand where the results come from and what they actually mean.”
Studying via distance learning has enabled Alistair to undertake training he can schedule around his work pattern. He said; “I couldn’t have spared a day out of my job each week so this has worked well for me. You do need to be prepared to dedicate yourself to it but the pace of learning is very manageable.
“I have enjoyed the residential blocks where I’ve spent a week at the National Food Manufacturing Centre at Holbeach because you get to meet everyone else who has been studying towards the same thing. Not only do you get to talk about how different companies approach the same issues and share good practice, it’s also very morale-boosting to meet people in the same position as me, knowing we’ve all been disciplining ourselves in our own way towards succeeding on the course.”
Alistair is planning to progress onto the degree programme in the future.
Factfile: Foundation Degree in Food Manufacture
The University of Lincoln’s Foundation Degree in Food Manufacture is taught on a day release basis or by distance learning, with students electing to study routes in either Process and Business Improvement or Quality Assurance and Technical Management.
Duration 2½ years (day release or distance learning)
Starts September and January
Costs £998 per year
Credits 240
Visit www.lincoln.ac.uk/holbeach to find out more.
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