Page 52 - Regional Employment & Skills Plan

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The sector is one of importance to the region with specific major growth areas, for instance;
• Food technology and food processing have been identified as areas of importance for the Haven Waterway Enterprise Zone.
• There is well-established production and processing capacity across the Mid Wales region with a number of regionally important companies situated in the counties, including; Dunbia, Randall Parker Foods, Rachel’s Dairy etc.
• Furthermore, Horeb is home to one of three Food Innovation Wales locations in the region at the Food Centre Wales.
• Aberystwyth is also home to several important Welsh Agricultural organisations such as Organic Centre Wales and Hybu Cig Cymru.
• One of the largest and most recently developed UK livestock markets is situated in Welshpool.
• Development of a Veterinary School in Aberystwyth, (which is also aligned to the Life
Sciences’ sector.
Employers Voice101 Significant Challenges
• Competition for customers from restaurant chains
• High reliance on migrant workers
Recruitment Difficulties
• No recruitment difficulties as location is preferable allowing recruitment from a large pool of labour
• Electrical engineer
• Mechanical engineer
• Process manager
Work Readiness of New Entrants
• General consensus that new entrants are work ready
Drivers of Change
• Economic conditions and eating out trends
Barriers to Training
• No clear barriers to training
• Drivers now require Certificate of Professional
Competence which has to be obtained externally and paid for
101 RLSP Large Company Survey & electronic survey (April- June 2016)
Regional Employment & Skills Plan South West & Mid Wales Foundational Economy