Abstract:

The use of food safety management systems (FSMS) in the food industry fully guarantees the safety of manufactured goods, while reducing the production costs associated with a possible defect. The effectiveness of the FSMS implementation is largely determined by the professional competence of the personnel, which in turn, sets high requirements for the education of students in food institutes. To optimize the process of professional competence development of future specialists in the field of food industry and to enhance motivation for studying the authors of the article have developed a training programme, consisting of two stages. The first (theoretical) stage is aimed at teaching the basics of building FSMS within the framework of six modules, accompanied by computerized testing of the knowledge gained. The second (practical) stage is based on an individual work with each student and is aimed at the formation of manufacturing competencies and practical skills of building FSMS elements based on the example of specific enterprises. Within the framework of training modules, students, based on their future profession in certain fields of food industry, are given the examples of the solutions to practical tasks and an opportunity to track the results so that they can produce specific products. The studying on the second stage provided the use of modern informational technologies and programs (automated control of knowledge with the help of e-learning program; test constructor MyTestXPro, three-dimensional modelling program Compass - 3D LT).

The effectiveness of the developed training programme was tested by the authors during the experiment. The participants of the experiment were 123 students of the Moscow State University of Food Production from 17 to 21 years old (70 girls and 53 young men), divided into experimental and control groups. The educational process in both groups was identical, except for the use of the simulation programme of the FSMS in the experimental group. Educational activity of students was accompanied by the entrance and exit tests in order to monitor the presence/absence of qualitative changes in the development of professional competencies of students. Diagnosing the students’ motivation to activity was carried out in the form of questionnaires with open questions.

The results indicated a positive effect of modelling of the FSMS both on motivation to the activity and on the quality of the formed professional competences. MSUFP students’ results of training with the use of the developed programme suggest that this programme can be used to develop skills of the production staff in the food industry.

Keywords:

Training programme, competence, professional skills, motivation, modelling, surveys, practical skills.