Staff working for a food production company in Abergavenny are helping the business go from strength to strength – thanks to workplace training from Coleg Gwent’s business team.

A group of staff from Faccenda Foods (formely Cranberry Foods) of Abergaveny who committed to workplace training have been celebrating their achievements, with 14 staff achieving CIH Level 4 Food Safety and 25 staff completing Level 3.

The training delivered by Coleg Gwent provided the learners with a thorough understanding of food safety procedures, and emphasised the importance of monitoring staff and controls.

Faccenda Foods gained work force development funding through the Welsh Government to help reduce the cost of the training, and made arrangements for staff to complete the courses during the working day.

The investment in employee training has been a great success, with employees sharing their best practice knowledge throughout the workforce. Kath Florence, HR Officer for Faccenda said: “It was a great opportunity for us as an organisation, with the help and support from Coleg Gwent’s Business team.

“We undertook this training opportunity to ensure that members of our staff were given the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and skills set. By gaining the level 3 and 4 food hygiene qualifications our staff now have a heightened knowledge of the food safety standards required of our organisation and the reasons why our rules and procedures are in place. They can now also share this knowledge with their colleagues.”

Faccenda employee Jamie Jones was delighted with the experience of learning in the workplace, he said: “Naturally as you get older training and learning becomes more difficult and the fear of failure looms. I enjoyed the experience as I like to think if you learn one new item each day then you will become a better person for it.

“The teamwork in the group was excellent and the trainer made the course very interesting but made sure the seriousness of the course was put across to us. In summary I enjoyed the experience of learning for the qualification.”