Food hygiene training success for Kilkeel Seafoods
Processing sustainably sourced scampi and located on the edge of Kilkeel harbour in Northern Ireland lies Kilkeel Seafoods, part of the Whitby Seafoods Group.
Like all seafood manufacturing businesses, their staff need to possess an appropriate level of food hygiene knowledge to ensure that it operates efficiently and effectively.
Kilkeel Seafoods training experience
In late 2023 Rosemary Johnston, Technical Manager at Kilkeel Seafoods, approached our Onshore Training Advisor Richard Wardell about food hygiene training needs for their team. Richard outlined our online Elementary Food Hygiene programme which allows learners to study at a location, pace and time suitable to their situation.
Following discussions with some of her colleagues, Rosemary decided that this training programme met their requirements.
The next stage involved Richard delivering a short online coaching session to Rosemary along with her colleagues Sharon McVeigh, Health and Safety and Insurance Officer and Ryan McConnell, Quality Assurance Assistant.
Sharon and Ryan both studied for the qualification and were successful with the invigilated online exam. This approach allowed them to explain their learning experience to their colleagues.
The learners were given time to study in small groups, based around their production timetable, and studied alone by reading, watching a series of videos and answering self-assessment questions.
Prior to completing an invigilated online exam, each learner was required to complete at least one practice online test. This allowed them to test their acquired knowledge and become familiar with the types of questions asked, to boost their confidence.
Takeaways from the training
Sharon and Ryan invigilated the first batch of online exams in April 2024.
Sharon McVeigh, Health, Safety and Insurance Officer at Kilkeel Seafoods said:
The learners were overjoyed with passing the invigilated online exam, especially those who took a resit exam. For some of our team, it was the first time that they’d taken an exam in many years. As Ryan and I are known to the candidates, it helped to reduce the exam nerves for many of them.
For some of the students, English is not their first language. However, we were able to provide Kilkeel Seafoods with learning materials and online exam papers in Lithuanian and Polish.
Over a couple of months, more than 150 workers successfully completed an invigilated online exam and were awarded with a nationally recognised qualification from the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland.
Simon Cummings, the Managing Director of Kilkeel Seafoods said:
It’s been great to see many of my team undertake a learning journey which has enhanced or refreshed their food hygiene knowledge. Non-food handling employees including office staff, cleaners, engineers and even our directors have fulfilled the studying too.
The examples outlined in the learning materials are seafood specific, which means that people working in the seafood industry can relate to the content.
Anyone can access the learning materials for free and we fund the certification cost for people working in the UK seafood industry.
Rosemary Johnston, the Technical Manager at Kilkeel Seafoods said:
Both Sharon and Ryan are key members of our team and are very comprehensive in their work. They have made this training such a success in the business. I would like to thank you, Seafish, for your assistance in this process and making this training very worthwhile.
Further Information
If you or your colleagues would like to find out more about our online Elementary Food Hygiene training programme, or any of our other training courses, please email our Onshore Training team at onshore@seafish.co.uk .