| Alberta Workforce Essential Skills (AWES) | Impact Study: Essential Skills and Food Sanitation and Hygiene Training |
The focus of this study was to determine the connection between safe food handling training and essential skills of workers in food services. The emerging theme, identified in the findings, is that employees believe their essential skills are adequate for food safety training and certification. Many employees are educated, often attending school while working in the industry, and consequently do not see a need for improving essential skills. Others feel that their literacy skills are adequate and, in fact, their work has not called for them to use other skills than basic literacy skills. Contrary to this, formal classroom trainers articulated that they make accommodations to low literacy and language skills on a recurring basis. During classroom lecture delivery, the most frequent adaptation is using oral communication with accompanying pictures, charts and videos in lecture delivery to convey content to learners. In-house managers, supervisors and co-workers typically pass on information through one-to-one buddy teaching and are less conscious of limited essential skills issues because they automatically adjust their teaching style to accommodate learners' abilities.
Essential skills related to food safety training and the certification exam will increasingly become a concern with the changing demographics. With an expected need to recruit workers from non-traditional markets that include new immigrants, aboriginals, older workers, and seniors who wish to supplement retirement income, essential skills will, in all probability, develop as an issue in the training and certification process.
An increase in the necessity for certification training and refresher courses for workers in the industry will demand greater availability, versatility and variety to the training options. As training opportunities and preferences expand to alternative delivery systems and resources, the non-traditional hires are more likely to be impacted by essential skills and language issues. The alternatives to classroom driven training for both certification training and updating courses may be in a self-study, correspondence, or computer mediated format. With these delivery methods, workers will need the essential skills important for working independently.
The impact study revealed a number of barriers to workers' success in food safety training and certification. Limited essential skills directly impact the successful completion of the training and certification process. We are recommending these solutions.
Stakeholders continue to address and reduce the barriers that prevent workers from taking and succeeding in training.
The project partners work with food operations to raise awareness about the impact of limited essential skills on safe food handling and hygiene training.