Raising the Standards

Raising the Standards is an innovative project, providing the food and beverage manufacturing sector with competency-based National Occupational Standards (NOS) that will ensure safe practices and professionalism across Canada’s workforce.

NOS are sector driven benchmarks that describe what a person in a specific occupation needs to know and be able to do in order to be considered capable of doing a job. That means the person has the skills, knowledge and abilities to do the job effectively and safely.

To make a NOS we listen to the people who work in the industry. Take for example a HACCP Coordinator - we start by gathering HACCP professionals working in subsectors from across Canada. We ask what are the tasks, knowledge and proficiencies involved in doing the job right. With this information, the industry then defines a true benchmark for the position by identifying all competencies requirements. The competencies are then validated by the industry to ensure authenticity.

Raising the Standards uses a blueprint to develop NOS for over 20 functional areas in the industry. Once formed, standards can be used for a number of purposes.