Confectionery expert launches mobile sweet academy

UK confectionery expert Andy Baxendale has launched a mobile training academy to preserve the art of sweet making and offer help to manufacturers across the UK.

The move is aimed at meeting demand for staff to be trained in the many aspects of confectionery production on site rather than attending courses at college or university.

Baxendale said that unless the skills were passed on to a new generation they could be lost forever.

One of the first companies to benefit from the mobile academy is JPL Flavour Technologies, based in Neston near Liverpool.

The firm specialises in flavors for vapes, food and beverages. Baxendale was recruited to train staff in confectionery manufacturing and processing to enable them to demonstrate their own flavors to customers.

Baxendale, a former product development manager for Chewits, said: “The British love their sweets but we have to be careful that a lot of the skills and the craft of making great sweets aren’t lost.”​

“We need to support and train a new generation of sweet makers. Launching a mobile academy is a way of taking the training directly into the workplace so that staff can hit the ground running and utilise their new skills immediately​.”