The Chilled Food Association (CFA) has responded to the needs of teachers, careers advisors and the wider industry by enhancing and expanding its Chilled Education website. To mark the second anniversary of Chilled Education the site www.chillededucation.org has a fresh new look, and access to a host of new resources. It also includes exclusive interviews with industry professionals who share their own career path stories, aimed at inspiring and encouraging the next generation of chilled food specialists. And a fun new resource, Micro Trumps, offers a creative new take on a popular game, using microbes as the theme!

Chilled Education was developed to address the skills gap in chilled food, caused by fewer students taking up food science options at degree level. By addressing the issues at source – in the classroom – it is now working with a growing group of over 400 schools across the country. It is supporting teachers with free resources, practical hands-on guidance and direct industry contact and showing students how their flair for science can lead to rewarding and exciting careers.

Suzanne Jennings teaches food at Our Lady’s Convent School in Loughborough. Her visit to Greencore’s site in Northampton updated her industrial knowledge and she uses Chilled Education resources in lessons for years 6 to 13. She said “During the visit I was delighted to meet an ex-student who now works there, and is really enjoying the job.

“Another ex-student attended the University of Nottingham’s Chilled Education Summer School and this supported her application to gain a place to study at the University.” Suzanne also says several of her students are now citing CFA’s influence in their aspirations to go into the industry.

Kaarin Goodburn MBE, CFA Director: “When we started the project we didn’t quite know what to expect, we had big ambitions and lots of ideas but were not certain how much interest we’d find. But, to our delight there is a huge appetite for our resources and information. Teachers and careers professionals, who sometimes struggle to find current information, are snapping up our free resources, from fridge thermometers to hand washing kits. The careers pages on our website are by far the most popular and young people have been queuing up at our career fair stands to hear more about a future in the industry. And colleagues in chilled food are enjoying the opportunity to share their knowledge and influence the future of the sector through this innovative, school-focused approach. There’s still a lot to do but we’re confident we are on the right track.”

Chilled Education’s two year anniversary – in numbers.

Since it began the project has:

• Recruited 500 teachers in 400 Cool Schools
• Shared 750 glo-germ kits and 70,000 fridge thermometers
• Produced 1,000 MicroTrumps games
• Received 6,500 visits to its site, more than 15,500 page views with chilled careers the most popular.

 

Teachers: request CFA resources

CFA members: get involved