Danish Crown's workplaces are developing rapidly these years as the company significantly increases the amount of technology and automation in production. Therefore, there will be a need for other skills than there have been up to now in the future.
Instead of hiring new people with those skills, for the first time ever, Danish Crown is offering the industrial operator training to all employees at the Danish processing factories and abattoirs who want to, just as those involved are guaranteed an industrial operator job after the training at their current workplace.
- In the food industry, in the future we will only need more people who can combine food craftsmanship with handling robots or other forms of automation. If we are to achieve that goal, more people must take the leap from unskilled to skilled. Here, systematic training planning is needed, in collaboration within the company. It is beneficial for both the industry and the individual's working life, says union secretary of the Food Federation NNF, Per Hansen.
During the training, the employees are paid an average of their normal salary, just as Danish Crown also pays for board and lodging for those who live far away from the school and transport for the others.
- Employees with this combination of skills will be incredibly important in the abattoirs and processing factories of the future in Danish Crown. We see no reason to look for that outside the city as the first move, when we have skilled employees who know how to work with food but need to have the technical part built on top of their expertise, says Søren F. Eriksen, who is group production director in Danish Crown.
A fantastic opportunity
The training takes approximately two years for the employees, and they alternate between being at school at EUC Lillebælt in Fredericia and trying out the new skills in practice in industrial operator positions in Ringsted, Blans, Horsens, Vejle and Holsted respectively, where the 12 employees on the first team is from.
One of the participants is 26-year-old Mikkel Bigum, who before then worked as a butcher on the evening shift in Blans. When he saw the offer, he had no doubts.
- I think it is a fantastic opportunity. The education, of course, better prepares me for my future working life, but I can also see that it makes very good sense for Danish Crown that I and others can supplement our skills with this type of competence as the amount of automation increases, says Mikkel Bigum.
Danish Crown experienced far more applicants than there was room for in the first team. Therefore, the next team will start at the beginning of September 2023, and it is expected that more teams will follow in the same style thereafter.