The Food Safety Experts
Within this generation, Pre-Apprenticeships; Apprenticeships and Incumbent Worker
Apprenticeships are rapidly becoming the preferred career pathways, for newer workers to attain
the training, skills and higher paying science, technology, engineering, and math opportunities,
in the Life Sciences industries.
In the Food and Dietary Supplement Industry, the Food SMART Strategies International, (FSSI),
learnings and ‘on the job’ paid training offerings specifically on the requirements of the Food
Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) ensure professional job status and opportunities to current
and future generations of Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI), Compliance and
Safety Officers. These individuals, implement in real time, various provisions of the FSMA law
while modeling a culture of compliance, quality and safety whether for food testing labs;
growers; processors; and manufacturers, ensuring continuous improvement, sustainable growth;
and profitability.
Over eight years and almost 100 graduated Apprentices, lessons learned and best practices have
emerged. Apprenticeships for the preparation of individuals for the higher skills jobs around
Compliance, Food Safety and Quality, are the first of their kind. Often the best served are the
underrepresented sectors in the food industry, namely, smaller companies and their workers.
Like all employers these days, finding skilled workers is a real challenge and yet thru this
Apprenticeship effort, smaller food industry employers may be eligible for their own Document
Control Systems Coordinator, usually a document control coordinator apprentice. The ideal
scenario is that this person would come from an enterprise’s own worker ranks, perhaps a trusted
longer term employee, who with this program may find their way into a higher skills, higher
paying role in the company, perhaps changing their and their family’s fortunes and future.
FSSI Foundation funding targets and focuses the entire learning process, which allows the
individual to acquire, over time, all the certifications* used in their branch of the food or dietary
supplement industry. Simultaneously, the food enterprise is ensuring compliance to the FSMA
law, improving their documentation processes, and thru offering food industry professional
development, modeling a culture of food safety and quality. This is a sure ‘win’ for all, in
around and touched by the enterprise.
*NOTE: All acquired certifications go with the individual earning them, even when funded by
the FSSI Foundation or their Host or Employer Food Company!