How can we ensure a sustainable and competitive food and beverage industry?
EFFAT (the European Federation of Food, Agriculture and Tourism Trade Unions and industry trade body FoodDrinkEurope signed a joint agreement in January to launch a Social Dialogue in the European Food and Drink industry, and the call for research is a part of this work.
The food and beverage industry is the largest industrial sector in the EU, they said, but it has become increasingly difficult to fill positions, as relatively few graduates find it attractive and the industry requires a skilled workforce. Meanwhile, graduates increasingly are finding it difficult to find employment.
“In this context, working towards closing the gap between the demand for increasingly skilled jobs and EU job seekers and securing the up-skilling and long-term employability of EU Food & Drink employees is a task of the utmost importance and urgency,” said EFFAT and FDE in a joint document outlining the project.
The aims of the project include gaining an overview of the sector’s demographics; defining current skills and competence needs in the food and beverage industry workforce; creating a compendium of best practice for in-house training; and providing analysis of the findings to present to relevant stakeholders.
The project is also intended to ensure “effective, transparent, fluid communication between the offer and demand for work in the EU food and drink industry”.
More information is available online here.
