Education secretary Michael Russell has revealed that more than 600 modern apprenticeships have been facilitated within the food and beverage industry over the past 18 months, which has also had a knock on effect to the catering equipment industry.

Addressing his audience at an Edinburgh-hosted Royal Highland Show, Mr. Russell highlighted the need for encouraging skills within the field to bolster employment in the country and to help its financial rehabilitation, especially since 2010 will be a Year of Food and Drink for Scotland.

Supporting a reported 49 apprenticeships during the previous fiscal year, Skills Development Scotland made a thirteen-fold increase in its commitment to such schemes, backing 650 people during the year ended March 2010.

Mr. Russell also talked of the motivation behind the country’s Year of Food and Drink, formed as a joint endeavour with the Scottish tourism industry, which is to put Scotland forward as a nation of food and drink and equip the local workforce with the necessary skills to fulfil the sector’s burgeoning demand, hence the significant rise in funding over the past year.

Speaking of the end goal and in the knowledge that tourists spend £1 in every £5 in the sector, Russell commented, “Scotland Food and Drink has a target to grow the industry to £12.5 billion by 2017.”

Meanwhile in County Durham, eight year old Lily Mansfield of Woodham Burn Primary School has won a World Cup culinary contest, which forms part of the educational establishment’s Let’s Get Cooking Club, with her Hand of Cod creation, inspired by Diego Maradona’s dubious goal in the final stages of the 1986 World Cup.

Posted by Matt on the 5th July 2010