Tate & Lyle

A global food ingredients manufacturer is one of the latest high profile businesses to back a pioneering new qualification for young people.

Ken Wilson, Community Affairs Manager at Tate & Lyle, has become an employer champion for the Diploma in Manufacturing and Product Design (MPD), which is set to launch in September 2009. One of the government’s new qualifications for 14 to 19 year olds, the Diploma in MPD has been designed to open young people’s eyes to the huge diversity and exciting challenges to be found in manufacturing, as well as to provide a solid foundation for a career in this and other industries.

Employers will play an important role in the delivery of the Diploma in MPD by joining consortia or partnerships of schools, colleges and local companies. Students will split their time between the classroom, college, and the workplace, which will allow them to apply the theory they learn in class to the real-life demands of manufacturing.

“The Diploma in MPD provides an alternative route for young people to enter industry,” explained Ken. “A purely academic route isn’t necessarily the right one. Students who undertake the Diploma in MPD are more likely to understand how the industry works, and to have realistic expectations of what happens within the workplace. They are therefore more likely to become long-term employees. This will help companies save on recruitment costs, as it increases the chances of recruiting the right people the first time.”

Although the Diploma is an England-wide initiative, the nature of delivery means that employers will engage with local schools and colleges, which will allow companies to reap the benefits of investing in their communities.

Tate & Lyle has a proactive Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, and has long been committed to community investment. The company’s main UK operation is in the Eeast London borough of Newham, an area that is now enjoying a period of regeneration. Tate & Lyle has played a key role, running a number of longstanding community initiatives which focus on supporting local education.

“Education is key to regeneration,” explained Ken. “Newham has one of the highest proportions of young people anywhere in the UK (26 per cent of the population is aged under 16*), so working with these young people and helping to give them every opportunity to succeed will help drive up prosperity in the area.

“Engagement with local schools really is a virtuous circle – as more people from the community are recruited and supported in their roles, they progress up the career ladder, their income rises and the area begins to prosper and attract investment and wealth. This then leads to a greater pool of high quality potential recruits living locally.

“The Diploma in MPD provides an excellent opportunity for more employers to benefit in this way. It is a direct route through which they can engage with those living on their doorsteps, nurture local talent, and reap the business benefits.”

Tate & Lyle has formed links with schools through a well-established relationship with the local Education Business Partnership (EBP), of which Ken is a Board member. In 2008, the company engaged with more than 1000 local young people, not only by offering work experience and site visits, but also by going into schools to give presentations, help deliver business skills lessons, and offer interview advice.

This is exactly the nature of engagement that employers delivering the Diploma in MPD will undertake. Although a minimum of 10 days work experience is a compulsory part of the Diploma, if companies do not have the resources to offer work placements, they can still provide support by visiting schools, working with teachers to design projects – anything that helps to bring the world of work to life.

For companies that are able to offer work placements, Ken is confident they will profit enormously from the experience.

“Work experience will enhance young people’s learning. Those who have chosen to take the Diploma in MPD will be eager to learn about the industry and about manufacturing in the time they spend in the workplace. At Tate & Lyle, we’ve sometimes had students who complete their work experience and ask if they can come back and do more in the school holidays because they enjoyed it so much. I expect that once the Diploma in MPD is underway, this type of request will become more commonplace.

“It will be up to the employers involved to make students’ work placements a positive experience. However, in return, employers will be rewarded with recruits who are more enthusiastic, more committed, and better skilled.”

The Diploma in Manufacturing and Product Design is being introduced as part of the second wave of 17 new Diplomas which will be available to all school pupils in England by 2013. It will be available at three levels – Foundation, Higher and Advanced. It is intended to open up a variety of progression routes to participating students, including employment, Apprenticeships, Further and Higher Education.

All students taking the Diploma in MPD will study business and management, materials science and product design, and production and processing as core topics or ‘Principal Learning’. Additional and Specialist Learning options will allow students to choose from a range of vocational manufacturing qualifications, GCSEs and A levels to supplement their principal learning. This will be further complemented by work experience, an extended project, and assessment in functional skills in English, maths and IT, as well as employability skills such as self-management, team working and reflective learning.

*2001 census