Tomra Food has launched a comprehensive online learning resource for packhouse professionals in the fresh produce industry. Packhouse Academy, powered by Tomra Academy, offers a wide range of on-demand videos, live interactive webinars, and user-driven training modules. Packhouse Academy hopes to empower individuals to increase their industry-critical knowledge and skills, in turn helping packhouses improve their pack-out, productivity, and quality.
Tomra Food has created Packhouse Academy to help businesses overcome skills shortages in machine operation and other specialist packhouse roles. A good machine operator allows a packhouse to maximize investment in technology for better pack-out and profitability, but until now, a lack of training pathways has typically meant packhouses themselves had to train their staff in setting-up and operating machinery for optimal results. As technology and industry best practices continually evolve, Packhouse Academy makes it easy to keep pace by developing and maintaining the skills necessary for competitive advantage. The training is deployed through a personalized learning portal, making it possible for individuals to study at their own speed via desktop, laptop, or mobile device, at a time and place convenient for them and their employers.
Roydon Adlam, global customer training manager Tomra Fresh Food, said, “Packhouse Academy’s mission is to ensure that every packhouse team member is equipped with the right blend of skills and experience. This is an opportunity for individuals to develop their careers and get their skills recognized by professional certificates, and for packhouses to operate at their maximum potential. We expect the courses on operators’ skills and new software releases to be the most popular because these will help advance the attainment of benefits from our customers’ investments in machinery.”
Training the experts
Tomra Food has shaped its new education program with an expert understanding of real-world needs as the leading provider of integrated post-harvest solutions to the global fresh produce industry. Packhouse Academy’s Tier 1 content, which is free to access, helps build or affirm general industry knowledge, as well as covering topics specific to operating Tomra Food equipment. Tier 2 premium content, accessible to paid subscribers, is Tomra Food-specific. Tier 2 content complements, and sometimes substitutes for, the Instructor-Led Training (ILT) workshops at Tomra Food’s seven global training centers and onsite coaching at customers’ premises.
Packhouse Academy initially offers 75 courses, each with a length of about five to seven minutes, with bundles of three or more courses forming seven distinct learning paths. Courses can be taken in part and then completed at a later date. Knowledge checkpoints and scores make it easy to track progress through study modules, and records are automatically kept of each course and learning path successfully completed. Completion is recognized by a downloadable personalized certificate.
Course content comprises topics such as the responsibilities, tasks, and skills demanded by packhouse operations; optimizing packhouse production capabilities; good manufacturing practices; packhouse safety; packhouse sanitation; setting-up and optimizing sorting and grading equipment; new software and new products; and troubleshooting.
The learning paths cover packhouse standards; sizer operations at morning start-up; sizer operations and troubleshooting; sizer operations and maximizing performance; an introduction to Spectrim (the industry’s most powerful optical sorting platform); an introduction to Inspectra (the internal inspection system for fresh produce); and cleaning and sanitation of Tomra Food equipment.
