| Food staff retailers project |
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| Food Industry - NEWS |
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Education courses project per food stuff retailers on Food Health and Safety (former health record)
FOREWORD Reference regulations Obligation of health record for foodstuff retailers has been replaced by the current new national and EC regulations which came into force following issue of EC Regulations “Health Package” which, in food safety, attributes the employer with the obligation and responsibility of training and updating food industry workers, according to criteria established by the regulations. The Regional governments, therefore, have accepted these regulations by issuing specifically related directives, not nationally unified, but which are however all characterised by the obligation for food industry operators engaged in preparing, producing, manipulating, serving and selling food substances, to regularly (on average every two/three years) submit an attendance certificate to the control bodies proving their attendance at a specific education course, variable in hours according to regional regulations. For example, among the categories subject to the regulations, with basic differences among Regions, there are operators who have direct contact with foodstuff, like cooks and kitchen helpers, waiters, barmen, self-service workers, as well as confectioners, ice cream makers, delicatessen workers, fresh pasta makers, milk and cheese processors, workers in slaughter-houses, sectioning processing and sale of meat, fish and shellfish, egg-based products, bakers and makers of pizzas, piadine (unleavened flat bread) and similar products, processing and sale of fruit and vegetables, fish mongers, transportation and sale of melted/liquid products, serving/portioning of meals in schools and charitable institutions. Application of the rules Application is very wide-ranging and is nationally applicable, with millions of potential users. Since this is an EC directive, involving all EU countries, the multilanguage project will find important usage also abroad. THE CURRENT SITUATION Education courses available in Italy are exclusively residential and not always interconnected. DRAWBACKS OF RESIDENTIAL TRAINING Attending residential courses is often of little effectiveness due to diversity of learners, lack of sector specificity for single categories and the impossibility of reviewing fundamentals. Furthermore, for users, this entails, besides registration fees, transfer to where the course is held, or anyway an in-house commitment, with additional costs and time involved. THE PROJECT The project by PVI EDUCATION envisages one-to-one remote training courses, multilanguage, on Food Health and Safety for food industry operators (former health record). Furthermore, the underlying intention is to make courses compliant with the different regional regulations so as to achieve nation-wide deployment. THE AIMS The objective of these courses is to convey knowledge and behaviours aimed at preventing damages to public health, by providing support to all operators in preparing, producing, serving and selling food substances. MULTILANGUAGE COURSES The courses on DVD shall be multilanguage. Special attention paid to Spanish, Arabian and Chinese allows communication with ethnic communities, above all in the restaurant industry. It is possible to provide tailor-made training courses for workers in larger sized organisations, such as supermarkets, production companies, catering and other business on the national territory, THE ADVANTAGES OF REMOTE EDUCATION The possibility of training at home or at work at reduced costs, in times decided by the user, even at different times, without sacrificing working time, provides a competitive, versatile and economically interesting tool. Furthermore, remote education (FAD) recognition, by national and regional institutions, even for important professional and refresher training such as health workers, with attribution of education credits has officially confirmed its effectiveness and worthiness in adult education and learning. Lastly, compulsory interactive remote education attendance leads to a personal and direct involvement, favouring an effective build-up of information which will positively reflect on workers’ professionalism and consumers’ health THE PUBLISHER
Le Point Vétérinaire Italie (PVI) is a publisher which has been present in Italy since 1992. Leader in veterinary science, it is one the most important publishers on agriculture and animal breeding as well as public health (www.pointvet.it). The specific competence and authority acquired through periodical publications and books together with the ongoing collaboration with leading experts, guarantee the quality of PVI products. PVI publishes a weekly, four monthlies, two bimonthlies and four quarterlies. The catalogue contains over seventy titles, ranging from university to professional texts. Furthermore, PVI has a division dedicated to professional training, both residential and remote. PVI activities are addressed to veterinaries, breeders, chemists, doctors, health inspection staff etc.
EXPERIENCE IN EDUCATION PVI scientific periodicals are leaders in self-training of professional categories. This proprietor e-learning platform is dedicated to training professionals and in 2007 PVI together with F.I.A.S.O. (Italian Federation of Healthcare Units and Hospitals) and in collaboration with Università degli Studi di Milano, ASL (local health unit) Città di Milano and l’Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Lombardia e dell’Emilia Romagna ( Institute for animal prevention treatments ), set up the first experimental remote training course, with ECM (Continuous education in Medicine) credits, authorised by Commissione Nazionale per la Formazione Continua - CNFC (National Committee for continuous education) by the Ministry of Health for per i veterinaries and operators in environment and workplace prevention. In 2009 PVI was accredited Provider of the Sistema Lombardo of ECM/CPD, for both remote and residential training and provided national courses with ECM (Continuous education in Medicine) credits for veterinaries, doctors, chemists, healthcare inspection workers and other professional categories. PVI was one of the first institutions accredited as national Providers of FAD (remote education) by CNFC.
Quality Certification On 20.04.2005 PVI was certified CISQ/CERTIQUALITY, which is currently upheld in compliance with UNI EN ISO 9001:2008, for designing and providing continuous education in medicine and public health, both residential and remote. For training projects, PVI is present with the “PVI EDUCATION” brand.
THE SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE AND THE STEERING COMMITTEE The project was set up with the participation of authoritative experts representing important national institutions. Two committees were set up: PVI Scientific Committee for Food Safety and a Steering Committee. The Scientific committee guarantees the scientific correctness and teaching effectiveness of courses, whereas the Steering Committee includes other authoritative experts and representatives of trade associations and partner Institutions. Committees may be extended to include other technical-scientific and institutional representatives depending on any requests and needs which may arise.
THE INNOVATIVE METHODOLOGY The DVD courses are based on an exclusive technical system, PVI owned, called “DVD one to one”, as each DVD is unique and allows the acquisition of only one certificate per attendee. The most significant novelty is that it allows all those who are unacquainted with the computer to attend multimedia and interactive courses, with assessment questionnaires, from the comfort of their homes, by simply using a television set, a DVD reader and a remote control. The multi-language function also allows operators of other nationalities to follow courses in their own language. Users may access a sort of tutoring over the telephone, by fax, e-mail and an e-learning platform. The more expert attendees may also follow courses on PC or Mac.
DVD COURSE STRUCTURE • Courses on DVD are subdivided into chapters, freely consultable. • Each chapter contains a didactic video, supported by images and animation. After having viewed each charter you can answer questions on the related questionnaire. • It is not possible to access the single questionnaires without having viewed the related chapters. • The questionnaires are different on each DVD; each questionnaire contains several multiple choice answers and must be taken in one single session.
THE FUNCTIONALITY OF DVD COURSES • It is possible to move through the questions only if the correct answer is given, otherwise the learner is taken back to the beginning of the chapter for revision. • The questions change every time the questionnaire is repeated. • It is possible to review chapters once related final tests have been passed. After passing each questionnaire, a number will automatically appear, different for each DVD. This number will have to be copied into the appropriate box on the form attached to the package.
THE CERTIFICATE By matching all the chapter numbers, which had appeared, to the code printed on the DVD, which must also be copied onto the form, learners provide proof of having passed the course. Sending the form filled in with the correct codes and attendee’s personal details to PVI EDUCATION, via fax (or other means as stated) shall grant the right to receiving the personal attendance certificate.
UNIQUE USE AND TRACEABILITY Each DVD is unique. The questions (different), the questionnaire code numbers and the product code number are different on each DVD.
PROJECT MILESTONES The system uses procedures which are similar to training courses for health professionals and have therefore already been tested and validated. However, since this is an innovative project, the underlying teaching methodology and training effectiveness was verified through a research project coordinated by the Scientific Committee. The research project includes verification of course structure compliance to the single regional regulations, in order to achieve national validity. Before being placed on the market, the first DVD course, dedicated to the catering industry, will be tested on a representative sample of catering workers, both Italian and foreign, together with trade associations in order to verify user satisfaction rating and any adjustments needed.
A collection of Educational DVDs, addressed to all categories included in the regulations, is envisaged.
The demo DVD The new methodology will be presented in a DEMO taken from the first chapter of Food Health and Safety for workers in the catering industry.
Milan, July 2010 |
