Training and Accreditation

Briefing on Canteen Accreditation Forum

On behalf of its members and the ACT P&C Council, ACTSCA convened a forum in the School hall at Alfred Deakin High School on Monday 30 June 2008 so that canteen staff, P&C Association members, commercial providers and interested parties could be briefed on the proposed Accreditation programme and supporting training package being developed by the Department of Education and Training (DET) and Department of Health.

ACTSCA invited Maureen Bartle (Assistant Manager, Curriculum Support P-12), and Ben Yuen (Health & PE Curriculum Support) to address the meeting. Deirdre Love, President of ACTSCA, chaired the meeting.

Deirdre Love introduced the meeting by saying that “there was a lot of support out there” for canteen accreditation, but some anxiety. The meeting was an opportunity to find out what is planned and how it will be implemented. Deirdre said “We want it to work.”

Maureen Bartle spoke about the important role that canteens fulfill in schools. She advised that

Curriculum Support (CS) does not have the time, support or capacity to take on training canteen staff.
The training provided by ACTSCA has been to a very high standard and “extremely professional”.
So as to ensure that the accreditation would be successful and provide canteen staff and operators with the skills to obtain and maintain accreditation, it had been decided to approach CIT, Reid Campus to develop a training package which would be delivered by CIT.
A reference group of the principal stakeholders has been formed: ACTSCA, DET, CIT and ACT Health. Many hours have been spent working on a course that is relevant to Canteen operators and staff.
It is proposed to run a pilot course in September 2008 for 15 students.

Ben Yuen acknowledged that communication between schools and DET has not always been successful, and that he plans to use ACTSCA and P&C Council to communicate better. He then gave a brief overview of the major processes of the past few years including –

CAPACT (Canteen Administration Program ACT) which ACTSCA initiated managed and administered in conjunction with the Heart Foundation, until the Heart Foundation lost its funding in 2006.
DETSCA (Department of Education School Canteen Accreditation)
In 2007 DET offered a two half day programme which proved insufficient training for canteens aiming for accreditation under the DETSCA programme.
In April 2007 ACT Health reviewed DETSCA and found that the training was insufficient and that there were problems with implementation of the “food sold” aspect of the program.
The review recommended that DET investigate training options with CIT.

Ben Yuen then outlined the new accreditation programme and the training package. Under the new system

Canteens will be awarded bronze, silver or gold accreditation.
the NSW “traffic light” system will be used to identify foods.
Nutrition Australia ACT will re-write the manual on “foods sold” to comply with the traffic light system.
Each Government School Canteen is to be accredited at the Bronze level by the end of 2009 and once accredited it is valid for 2 years.
Non Government schools will be invited and encouraged to obtain accreditation.
Self assessment will still be used for the accreditation programme, with the canteen operating needing to provide evidence to support the application for Bronze, Silver or Gold accreditation. Some more discussion needs to take place on how to make this process work and be effective.

The training package –

will be delivered by CIT based on ACTSCA’s CAPACT and Master Class training programmes.
It will involve 20 hours face to face delivery with a workplace assessment and evaluation in the workplace.
Having successfully completed the CIT training course, students will receive a Statement of Attainment which will include some of the competencies for a Certificate 1, and can be recognised nationally.
Prior learning and/or training will be taken into account. CIT will determine which level of prior learning is applicable.
ACTSCA has asked that the training package include a unit on computing relevant to canteens
The course will run as a pilot programme on Thursday 11 September, Thursday 18 September and Thursday 25 September between 10 am and 5:30 pm. The days were decided by CIT.
The cost will be $450 per person.
Attendees will only pay for the training they need. However discussion has yet to take place re the end cost when taking into account prior knowledge.
The P&C or the commercial operator should pay this fee.
The P&C or commercial operator should also pay the canteen worker to attend the course. Relief staff will also have to be provided in canteens, so it will be fairly costly.

Questions

How long will the training last? Will I have to do more training?
The training will be current until the whole accreditation system is reviewed. Canteen workers must be able to demonstrate competencies.

What about canteens that are run by commercial providers?
One person in the canteen has to be accredited. Each canteen must have a trained manager. They cannot send one manager to the training who then trains other staff (train the trainer). If the manager leaves, the company must find another trained manager. However, canteen staff tend not to move between school canteens: they typically leave altogether, e.g. retire. Commercial operators are welcome to discuss with CIT requirements they may have to train their staff.

What about school canteens with only one employee who leaves?
DET will be “reasonable” while the P&C finds a replacement. The P&C should pay staff to attend training, and for the replacement.

Job Sharing
Where a canteen is managed by more than one person (job-sharing) both people have to do the training.

Canteens operated by volunteers only
When a school is not actually operating as a canteen but providing special lunches twice a term, it is not expected that they will need to be trained. However, this situation needs to be discussed by the reference group.

With respect to Food safety in this situation, it would still have to meet the food safety guidelines but not within the Accreditation guidelines. This too will be discussed by the reference group

Who signs off the accreditation?
The principal will sign off the accreditation. Accreditation will be mandatory by the end of 2009, but there will be lee-way for small schools.. A trained manager will also be mandatory. In 2010 the National Healthy Canteens guidelines will be ready.

Question about colleges
Colleges serve young adults who will eat what they like. DET hopes that as students absorb learning from the curriculum framework about healthy living, they will become more conscious of what they eat. Health and Wellbeing Committees will address the issue of young adults in colleges, and their autonomy.

What is DET going to do to market accreditation?
All professional development will address this, raising teacher awareness.
The reference group will publicise this also. The newsletter can be distributed by ACTSCA and P&C Council.

Has DET thought about employing canteen staff on the same basis as ancillary staff?
(No answer).

The meeting closed at 5 pm. Thanks were given to the speakers and to ACTSCA for organising the Forum.

Compiled by S Rockliff, D Love & K McCann