BDSI’s work highlighting confectionery sector skills training sets the standard
This past week, Germany’s BDSI national confectionery organisation has highlighted a broad range of training opportunities for the sector, which highlighted the encouraging state of the industry there.
While the trade body recently admitted that it may be some while before events return to anything approaching normality within the country due to the effects of the coronavirus crisis, the fact that investment is continuing in the next generation of confectioners, technicians and specialists.
As was recently highlighted at the World Confectionery Conference by our editorial board member Andy Baxendale, the same sadly can’t be said for the UK. Despite the country’s long association with the industry, there are presently no designated university courses specifically targeting the sweets and snacks industry available through the country’s higher education system – which he believes in part has been down to a ‘vilification of ingredients, including sugar’ that has negatively impacted on the industry.
It’s clear that the gap in such skills training opportunities will ultimately lead to a decline in standards within the sector if a new generation of industry specialists are no longer coming through to make their mark on the once widely renowned British manufacturing trade.
The picture across Europe and further afield, at least anecdotally, doesn’t appear that much notably more promising for many countries in terms of available opportunities with the sector, so it will take something special in terms of commercial investment and broader government support for manufacturing to change this state of affairs and ensure that our industries continue to thrive.
- Neill Barston, Confectionery Production editor.
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