The food industry has made great strides in improving training and learning systems across its various sectors, but much training is still done without any structured evaluation.  The need for training metrics has come up at recent IAFP meetings, but evidence-based sessions have been absent from IAFP meeting agendas.  Anecdotal evidence suggests that some companies do not use any metrics to assess training effectiveness, whilst others postpone any training for new employees until after a "natural drop off period".  Some of these issues are echoed in the annual Campden BRI "Global Food Safety Training Survey" (www.campdenbri.com), where records of attendance are still listed amongst the most common ways of assessing training understanding and less than half of companies report any measurement of performance/behaviour after training.  Clearly, a lack of effective training and education can lead to food safety management failures and this presents a risk to consumer health and brand protection.  However, applying training and education programs without appropriate evaluation metrics can lead to a false sense of security.

A new focus is required for the industry to continue its journey to improve training and learning. Building on models of training effectiveness, such as the Kirkpatrick Reaction-Learning-Behavior-Results model (www.kirkpatrickpartners.com), this symposium considers how practices from education research can transfer to the food industry. Speakers will address how to apply training effectiveness models and share experiences about how to get the most from your training dollars, going beyond "death by PowerPoint" and counting training events.

This session will, directly, address: (1) Proactive approaches to food safety training and education evaluation; (2) How to embed suitable metrics into design of training programs; and (3) Challenges and opportunities for improving training and learning systems for effective food safety management.  The session will engage audience participation, by utilizing digital social media in the room, to solicit audience reactions to ideas and recommendations.

Presentations