Employer Information

/Employer Information

 

What are your training KPIs based on?

If you are after best practice solutions, with up to date industry specific courses, that not only train, but also fully assess the competency of your employees, then you have come to the right place.

If however, you are after a “tick the box” solution where all you want is a cheap piece of paper, where your employees are churned through a generic, unengaging online course that involves a “Death by PowerPoint” experience that involves reading countless pages of text on a screen… then perhaps Prime Skills Pty Ltd isn’t for you…

 

As an employer, do you know what your legal responsibilities are?

While there is no legal requirement in any Australian state, for an employee to complete an accredited food safety course (unless it is a stated requirement in your Food Safety Program), the FSANZ Food Standards Code Standard 3.2.2: Food Safety Practices and General Requirements lists the very first stated requirement as:

3. Food handling – skills and knowledge

(1)     A food business must ensure that persons undertaking or supervising food handling operations have –

(a)     Skills in food safety and food hygiene matters; and

(b)     Knowledge of food safety and food hygiene matters,

Commensurate with their work activities.

That means that YOU as an employer, have a legal responsibility to ensure that ALL of your employees have the “skills” AND “knowledge” to ensure that foods are handled safely.

The above clause, does not only relate to your direct food handlers.

i.e. In a hotel or hospital, the term “persons undertaking or supervising food handling operations” includes all chefs, cooks, kitchen hands pantry hands and stewards, as well as:

  • Waiters;
  • Barmen;
  • Bus Boys;
  • Banquet or Conferencing employees;
  • Room Service Attendants;
  • Patient Services Assistants;
  • Mini Bar employees;
  • House keeping employees (if washing plates, cups and glasses in guest rooms);
  • Purchasing Employees;
  • Central Stores or Loading Dock employees responsible for receiving deliveries;
  • Drivers or employees responsible for internal or external transport.

For a food manufacturer or wholesaler, the term “persons undertaking or supervising food handling operations” can include employees involved in the receival, storage, preparation, manufacture, packaging, co packing, labelling and/ or distribution.

 

Online Courses

To help employers, Prime Skills Pty Ltd have developed a range of “best practice” industry specific online courses that include:

  • A professional presenter that introduces each course module;
  • High Definition (HD) video content to actively engage the learner (rather than just reading text on a screen);
  • Animations (that can be used to actively engage the learner, add humour or cover culturally sensitive topics);
  • Interviews with key industry professionals;
  • Photos (that either we take or our clients provide);
  • Short interactive “bite sized” modules;
  • Full assessment at course conclusion (questions are varied in nature and not just multi-choice).

While Prime Skills Pty Ltd know that there are other RTOs that deliver training much cheaper than Prime Skills, we know that the courses are not engaging, interesting or target different learning styles.

What learning controls are there for the online materials?

To ensure that the Trainee learns more effectively, Prime Skills Pty Ltd have implemented the following controls. The Trainee:

  • CAN NOT race through the materials. The Trainee needs to be involved throughout the training;
  • Rather than being able to hit “play” and walk away, the Trainee needs to acknowledge each slide by pushing “Next” once the slide has played;
  • Can go back and review the materials;
  • Must complete “Knowledge check questions” every five to ten slides that must be answered correctly to progress further into the course. Answers are saved and can be reviewed by employer if needed;
  • Can view a variety of multimedia options to cover all learning types. The online learning materials are NOT simply text-based slides that need to be read, and staff are not subjected to “death by PowerPoint”;
  • Does not need to complete the entire course at once. The Trainee can “book mark” the course and then pause or logout. When they return, the Trainee is given the option of starting at the point where they were up to, or can restart the course.

As each course and the Trainees involvement is timed, we know exactly how long each Trainee takes to complete the course (ensuring built in traceability at every step).

 What assessment controls are there for the online materials?

At Prime Skills Pty Ltd, we want to make sure that when a Trainee completes our online courses, that they are assessed to ensure they have completed all of the learning materials, and are competent.

Therefore, we have implemented the following learning and assessment controls into our courses:

  • The assessment cannot be started until the entire course has been completed;
  • To reduce the possibility of plagiarism, the assessment questions and answers are randomised (so that Trainees cannot sit side-by-side and complete (or copy and paste the answers from other Trainees);
  • The multiple choice component of the assessment is completed automatically online, rather than via a downloadable document so you and the Trainee can get instant feedback
  • The Trainee will always be completing the most current assessment (so that there cannot be previous versions circulating and being completed incorrectly);
  • The assessment is saved automatically as it is completed (so is not subject to snail mail issues or “the dog ate my homework” excuses);
  • The online assessment significantly reduces the turnaround time, as completed assessments can be reviewed and assessed as soon as they are submitted.

What are the benefits of Online Training for an employer?

Traditional in-house or classroom forms of learning are effective, however they are also expensive, time consuming and at times inconvenient. Benefits of Prime Skills Pty Ltd eLearning include:

  • Courses are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week;
  • Courses are accessible from anywhere in the world, where there is a broadband internet connection;
  • Reduction in traditional training costs by up to 60%;
  • Reduction of employee downtime;
  • Provides a uniform and consistent training solution;
  • An enhanced knowledge retention within learners;
  • An easy to access, easy to manage audit trail;
  • Course materials can be deliverable in multiple languages if needed;
  • Courses can be undertaken in bite size pieces;
  • Substantially increases the reach of your training all employees

By partnering with Prime Skills Pty Ltd, we will be able to bring a highly interactive, effective and affordable training solution via the internet right into your own business, or anywhere your employees have internet access.

They can still clock in if required for a few hours then do the training – easy and convenient!

Your employees can participate at a time and for the duration, that’s most convenient for you, your business and your employees. Now you have no excuse not to train your people!

Prime Skills Pty Ltd can you help you to manage multiple staff across multiple sites:

Prime Skills Pty Ltd recommends that if you have more than 30 employees, that you allow us to develop for you your own Learning Management System (called Academy HQ).

The AcademyHQ makes Human Resource controls quicker and easier by providing:

  • Visual triggers and reminders on students’ progress;
  • Total times taken for the training and assessment;
  • Automatic reminders for refresher training if needed (i.e. every two years);
  • Results and certificates in the one place (including courses that Prime Skills have NOT delivered).

AcademyHQ is the corporate Learning Management System (LMS) that allows employers and Human Resources departments to deliver training to their employees in an easy, scalable and engaging environment.

Not only is AcademyHQ very intuitive and easy to use, but AcademyHQ also has a huge number of features that provide you with everything you need to manage your in-house training programs.

Used the world over AcademyHQ is also fun, and stimulates and enhances learning, interaction, comprehension and employee retention.

After conducting painstaking research we are convinced that the AcademyHQ

Learning Management System is the best “next generation” web-based learning software provider on the market. And the fact that many renowned global companies trust AcademyHQ provides substance to our conclusion.

Prime Skills Pty Ltd and our media partner Olive Learning can you help you to develop your own company induction materials, online training courses and company specific training courses (including accredited training courses).

As we have indicated throughout this website, Prime Skills Pty Ltd employees, managers and directors are all passionate food industry professionals. While we are specialists in the food industry, we are not specialists in IT or digital media production.

We have therefore partnered with Olive Learning who are not food safety specialists, however they are renowned around the world for focusing on:

  • Corporate video production;
  • App development;
  • Virtual Reality environments and websites.

With a young and energetic team, Olive Learning are able to cover all facets of digital media production including onsite filming, still photography, scriptwriting, language translation, editing, 3D animation, development and more. Olive Learning can storyboard and create any eLearning course or online promotional media you need.

Olive Learning and Prime Skills Pty Ltd when developing online courses:

  • Pay close attention during the storyboard phase of developing the course to achieve desired learning outcomes;
  • Use HD video and animation to actively engage the learner – so no more “Death by PowerPoint”;
  • Prepare short interactive “bite sized” modules;
  • Full assessment at the conclusion of the course (questions can be varied in nature and not just multi-choice);
  • Professional presenter introduces each course module.

Olive Learning and Prime Skills Pty Ltd take the time to “listen” to our clients and therefore understand your needs. Prime Skills Pty Ltd can leverage off the world wide strengths of Olive Learning, who have offices in London, Dublin, Dubai, Nepal, Brisbane and Washington, and the Prime Skills Pty Ltd office in Melbourne we can ‘scale’ any product to suit, which means that we can effectively cater to small businesses and global corporations alike.

What is AcademyHQ?

AcademyHQ can be customised with your very own unique URL (i.e. http:// yourcompanyname.academyhq.com) and corporate look to “blend in” with your corporate branding.

For courses hosted on AcademyHQ, Olive Learning will provide maintenance and help desk support as part of the monthly License Fee. In addition,

  • As the system is hosted on the Cloud, updates and upgrades to the software can be implemented centrally from the Olive Learning offices without the need for integration with, or access to, any existing IT software;
  • Olive Learning online training courses are delivered through high quality, media rich content (including video, audio, interactions and in-vision presenters) which provide the highest levels of engagement and knowledge retention amongst staff.

Features of the AcademyHQ include:

  • Fully branded with your company logo and corporate colours;
  • Delivery of high quality, media rich eLearning courses;
  • Fully SCORM compliant;
  • Comprehensive reporting functions allowing high level auditing capabilities
  • Create and manage teams within the Academy;
  • Easy to use interface with 24/7 access allowing ‘real time’ viewing of participants progress;
  • The ability to integrate off-line certifications into Academy HQ against individual users;
  • Reminders when qualifications expire or refresher training is due
  • Download reports into CSV or Excel format and instantly downloadable PDF Certificates for all members of the Academy (on completion of training)

The AcademyHQ App for iOS and Android allows access to mobile enabled online courses, training records, company forms and company videos through the AcademyHQ smartphone App. The App also allows for targeted push notifications, and the ability to use QR Codes for training verifications.

 

Face to Face Courses

Learn from dedicated food industry professionals that have worked in YOUR industry for decades, rather than some online company that tries to be all things to all people.

As an employer, it is important that you know that Prime Skills Pty Ltd is not a faceless shelf company that delivers all courses to all people.

Instead, Prime Skills Pty Ltd is a specialised food industry provider, that is owned by two qualified chefs, who have not only worked in Australia, but also in England, Ireland, Singapore and Malaysia.

But we don’t stop there!

Every Director, employee and contract trainer of Prime Skills Pty Ltd has either worked in kitchens OR managed food service businesses. This includes our administrative and accounting employees as well as ALL of our trainers. We have worked the tools, we have done the long hours and we understand food and food safety. SIMPLE!

“You wouldn’t get a mechanic to cut your hair for you” (Dr Marc Dussault) so why would you trust your training needs to companies that don’t live and breath food?

Oh… did we forget to mention, that not only is our Managing Director a qualified chef by trade, but he is also a Level 4 NFSA Food Safety Auditor (the highest level possible) and an Australian Food Safety Specialist. He writes food safety articles for two national magazines, as well as being interviewed multiple times on radio, TV and newspapers in Melbourne and Sydney!

Benefits of Face to Face Training Courses:

In a Prime Skills Pty Ltd Face to Face Training Course, your employees will be able to interact with a qualified and experienced industry professional.

We take the time to make sure that all Trainees fully understand what we are teaching them, unlike other training companies that try to squash a days worth of information into our into two or three hours. That would be like trying to drink water out of a fire hydrant!

Surely you want an interactive environment where your employees can ask as many questions as the need to and can feel comfortable and understand what we are telling them.

At Prime Skills Pty Ltd, we do not “lecture” your employees.

We instead use multiple delivery tools including PowerPoint, Whiteboard, group discussions, videos, practical examples and examples that they can touch and experience, and we make sure that we target all three categories of learners (audio, visual and kinetic).

For classroom or workplace training we do not have a maximum number of Trainees, however we recommend that class sizes be capped at 15. This enables the trainer to adequately facilitate the training course and ensures that all students are included in the group and class discussions.