Dumfries employers gain insight into Ambassador programme

The Scottish Food & Drink Ambassador programme was showcased in Dumfries this week, as employers learned how to “feed their future workforce”.

Project co-ordinator Mary Holland

A range of attendees from the food & drink and hospitality industries heard project co-ordinator Mary Holland outline the benefits of encouraging employees to take part in the Ambassador programme

In one of the informal talks, she explained the valuable role it plays not only in developing employers’ own workforces but in inspiring and opening the minds of the future workforce to the possibilities in food & drink.

Shedding light on how an inclusive approach can pay dividends was the venue host Craig McEwen from the community café The Usual Place.

They have made themselves a Disability Confident Leader and lead the way in their community. As well as all their amazing work, they are independent validators and Craig was more than willing to offer support and advice to employers wanting to find out more.

Rachel Cowper of the Crichton Trust gave the view from the experience of the employer, having taken on team members who had trained at the Usual Place, and described how “reasonable adjustments” don’t need to be big things.

“Giving an autistic employee a regular five-minute break does not impact service but makes a big difference to the individual and their ability to do their job,” she said.

The invite-only evening event was organised jointly by Eat SW Scotland, Food & Drink Federation Scotland and Developing the Young Workforce Dumfries & Galloway. As well as providing innovative solutions to today’s workforce challenges, the evening was packed with valuable networking opportunities.

Moira Stalker, skills manager at FDF Scotland, had introduced the speakers and given context in terms of national industry strategy as well as a round-up of available support and resources.

She said: “The event was full of fabulously interesting conversations, not least the engagement between the individual groups when we asked them to share their own specific challenges when recruiting and retaining talent.

“The speakers gave fresh ideas on how to attract new and diverse talent into a workforce, as well as how to engage effectively with local communities.

“We’d like to thank both our partners and all the attendees on making this skills-focused event such a success.”