For any manufacturer, the challenges of recruiting, developing and retaining a skilled workforce to meet current and future business demands are ever-present. Bega Cheese turned to TAFE NSW – Illawarra Institute to address these issues and the partnership has proven fruitful.
With about 700 employees at three sites, the Bega Cheese workforce is big enough to warrant a dedicated Illawarra Institute Training Co-ordinator working on-site. Their role is to work with the Bega Cheese Human Resources team to co-ordinate the company’s Certificate II and Certificate III in Food Processing programs, as well as to provide support for training in general.
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How can I attract and retain staff? |
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Realise your goals with a TAFE NSW training partnership. |
Illawarra Institute has helped Bega Cheese integrate on-the-job skills development with strategies for growth, investment and productivity.
Regular meetings are held to discuss the most effective way to conduct assessments. Trainees are assessed on-line and off-line under very challenging conditions in a busy production operation. Assessment tools are adjusted to fit these conditions.
Illawarra Institute workplace assessors have access to both Bega Cheese factory sites at all hours, to keep track of trainee staff on a rotating 24-hour roster over five days per week. Trainees may work in all departments over the three shifts.
‘Illawarra Institute has had to understand our business very well in terms of what really happens when you manufacture cheese in a fast-paced environment and how that relates to the training and the skills that the people need for the different levels within the business,’ said Matthew Fanning, Human Resources Manager, Bega Cheese.
‘We’ve had nearly 300 trainees go through the program, or about half of our workforce. Illawarra Institute has been flexible with their assessment processes and their training schedules to support the fact that we have people on night shift working from dusk to dawn. That flexibility has been an important factor for us.
‘We’re fortunate that we’ve had the opportunity to develop a very good commercial relationship with Illawarra Institute here in Bega, because in regional areas there are very few options to deliver such training,’ Mr Fanning said. ‘Having Illawarra Institute here has worked really well for us.’
