The proposed centre is the result of an initiative by leading food companies in Lincolnshire to address the chronic shortage of well-trained technical operators for their businesses.
The centre will form part of a new specialised building for Holbeach, which has also recently completed a £3 million refurbishment of its existing premises.
The UK's food and drink industry has one of the most poorly qualified workforces in the UK, according to Improve, a government training body. About 19 per cent of the sectors workforce has no qualifications, compared to the average of 11 per cent for the total UK workforce. One third of staff in the processing sector have no qualifications at all.
In addition there is a significant under-representation of females to males. Males make up two-thirds of the sector's workforce compared to the national average where males make up a little over a half of the entire UK workforce.
The new Holbeach campus facility hopes to address this situation. The building, which will be completed by January 2007, will include high care/low care separation with environmental control. The training centre will be run as a food manufacturing site with working practices to reflect this.
Ahead of this, a food processing hall is being established in the existing campus building to facilitate the immediate introduction of training courses. Ishida Europe is supplying a complete weighing and packing line for handling fresh foods into pre-formed trays for the hall.
"The fact is that many of the low skilled jobs in the food industry are disappearing because of the increased availability of automated processing and packing machinery," said Val Braybrooks, Holbeach campus manager. "In addition, food companies are recognising that in order to continue to expand and to stay ahead of the competition, they need to introduce innovations and added value into their product ranges."
Over 3,000 part-time students, from 96 companies, including 32 multi-site organisations and 64 small to medium enterprises attend a range of food-based courses at the University.
"We are delighted to be able to help with this important initiative which will keep the UK food industry at the leading edge of development and competitiveness," said Paul Griffin, marketing director of Ishida Europe.