Professional Development advice
Hello to all newbies & pros,
I've been very quiet for a while so please do pardon that (although I do have a bad habit of lurking in the background!) Hoping you all had a fantastic festive season and are ready to take on 2016!! :)
I'm looking for advice, just a quick background: I've been working in the fresh produce industry for a few years and only started food safety system management about 3 years ago - with no prior experience or support, so it's been slow going... I've recently just done an FSSC 22000 course and got my Lead Auditor certification (actually arrived in the mail today - yay!!) .... so, my general question is...WHAT NEXT?
First on my list is to apply with IRCA and obviously try to expand my knowledge and experience database. There are no qualified auditors in my country so I see this as an awesome business niche to expand. My question is...HOW? Apart from going door to door offering consultancy/auditing services, are there any professionals out there who have a wise word for a young start-up ?
My goal would be to remain largely in the food sector and expand into different areas. Then I would offer the services for either system implementation/upkeep or auditing to all the local businesses,
If anyone has any business and/or professional development advice/sources I would be eternally grateful. Also, I would like to create some sort of link with international professionals (globalisation and all that) to create a "network" if you will, of people wanting to travel and spread their expertise on my side of the world.....
Grateful for any info :)
Take care!
Hi Tan 85
You can offer your auditing expertise to international certification bodies such as SGS and work as a contractor for them.
second option is to send emails to prospective customers for development, implementation and management of QA & food safety systems to expand your knowledge in different food sector
Regards
Humaid Khan
MD
Halal International Services
Hi Tan,
I deduce from yr comments that food manufacturing facilities in Zambia are rarely certified to recognized, or any, FS Standards like BRC, Global Gap, etc.
Is this because the food export business is currently minimal ?
International customers / Insurance Companies are IMEX a driving force for the promotion of certification needs and subsequently an immediate requirement for qualified auditors as per previous post.
It's Supply and Demand.but sometimes one has to create/promote the Demand.
PS - I just looked up yr interesting previous posts and it appears your own production unit may well have to be the trailblazer for the industry ! :thumbup:
. .
Hi Humaid and Charles, thanks so much for the responses! Charles, your observation is spot on! The number of companies exporting I can count on one hand, the manufacturing sector is also very limited, and that is a whole project on its own as Zambia sorely lacks any form of national standards, let alone international. I've managed to get myself on to the local technical committee of the Zambia Bureau of Standards (largely based on the progress our facility has made) and am pushing for implementation, but this is a painfully slow process. In short, I am indeed trying to bring in the food safety culture.
There are a few international companies, however these are in a different sector from mine, and I need to build experience (and confidence!!) so as to perform risk assessments and suitable FSMS .... I also need the professional development to advance through the auditor ranks. Short of sitting on Google and researching the meat industry for example,or changing jobs, is there any way any of you have built on your knowledge base?