Study 'Investigation on the repositioning and amendment of the promotion training in the food industry'

The food industry is the fourth largest industrial sector in Germany with 555,000 employees in about 6,000 companies. In addition to a few large corporations, food is produced primarily by a large number of small and medium-sized companies: about 95 percent of the companies in the food industry employ less than 250 people.

On behalf of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), the Research Institute for Vocational Training (f-bb) in cooperation with the Institute for Innovation and Technology (iit) in the VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH (VDI/VDE-IT) is investigating the extent to which the requirements that industrially oriented food companies place on the qualifications of their higher and middle managers in the industrial-technical sector are changing and are likely to change even further in the future under the conditions of increasing internationalization and technical change. The regulated further training courses at the master craftsman level relevant to this economic sector are the industrial master craftsman in the fields of food and confectionery. The regulations governing these further training courses were issued in 1986. The last amendment was made in July 2010, and the 1994 regulation for the master craftsman in the confectionery industry was last amended in 2010.

The aim of the study is to develop a material and decision basis for the repositioning and amendment of the regulated advanced training in the commercial and technical area of food production and processing in Germany. Of particular interest is which qualification requirements industrially oriented food companies place on higher skilled and middle managers in the commercial-technical sector and to what extent, according to the food companies' assessment, the advanced training to become a master craftsman in industry is oriented towards these requirements.

The implementation and evaluation of guideline-based expert interviews as well as an industry-wide CATI survey provide insights into the significance of further training as an attractive option for further education in the industry. In addition, recommendations for the adaptation of the further training regulations are derived.