Key Stats
Number of staff trained
200 +
Training partners since
2024
On-site training delivery across
One location, multiple sites
MG - Head of Health & Safety @ The Taiko Foods
“I used First Aid Safety in my previous employment and knew how good the service and learner feedback had been, so I was happy to be involved in bringing them into Taiko.
Since then, we’ve had nothing but positive feedback from everyone involved in the training. The trainers have been fantastic, the support behind the scenes has been equally strong, and they have become a partner we know we can rely on.”
Client background
Taiko Foods is a leading UK manufacturer of modern Asian-inspired food-to-go products and the UK market leader for pre-pack sushi and prepared food products. Its range includes sushi, salads and other food-to-go products supplied through major retailers across the UK.
Operating from a major site in Acton, West London, Taiko's operation encompasses large-scale food manufacturing alongside its operational and head office functions. Employing over 1,000 people operating 24 hours a day, coordinating essential workplace training across such a substantial and diverse workforce presents its own set of challenges.
First Aid Safety has worked with Taiko since 2024, initially supporting its workplace training requirements and subsequently developing the relationship across first aid, fire marshal and mental health training.
What began as a training-provider relationship has steadily evolved into a broader health and safety training partnership built around responsiveness, flexibility and a willingness to find solutions.
Challenges
Training within a large, round-the-clock food manufacturing operation requires considerably more flexibility than simply selecting dates from a training calendar.
Taiko needs to ensure that appropriately selected employees can attend essential health and safety training while maintaining staffing levels across a busy manufacturing environment.
The key challenges include:
Coordinating training around a 24-hour operation: With thousands of employees working across different roles, departments and shifts, releasing the right members of staff for training can be difficult.
Responding to short-notice requirements: Training requirements can arise with relatively little notice. Taiko therefore needs a provider capable of responding quickly rather than relying on dates scheduled several months in advance.
Finding instructors when availability is limited: Short lead times significantly reduce the availability of individual trainers, potentially making it harder to meet required training dates.
Supporting a multilingual workforce: English is not the first language for many employees. Courses involving technical terminology, theory and formal assessment can therefore be more challenging for some learners.
Maintaining robust assessment standards: Training needs to remain accessible without lowering the required learning or assessment standards. While a 100% pass rate can never be guaranteed, every learner should be given the best reasonable opportunity to understand, practise and demonstrate the required knowledge and skills.
Delivering consistently across different subjects: As the relationship expanded from first aid into fire safety and mental health, Taiko required the same level of responsiveness, course management and training quality across multiple disciplines.
Solution
First Aid Safety has developed a flexible training approach designed around the demands of Taiko's operation rather than expecting Taiko's operation to fit around a rigid training schedule.
Our approach includes:
A comprehensive instructor network: Rather than relying on a small number of trainers, we use our wider bank of experienced instructors to identify availability when Taiko requires training at short notice. This enables us to provide a selection of potential dates wherever possible and considerably reduces the scheduling burden on their team.
Responsive course coordination: Requests are dealt with quickly, with dates, availability and course requirements communicated clearly so that Taiko can coordinate attendees internally with minimal delay.
Multilingual instructor capability: Where possible, instructors with additional language skills can be selected to support learners for whom English is not their first language.
Experience with diverse learner groups: Our instructors regularly teach people from a wide variety of cultural, professional and linguistic backgrounds. This experience helps them recognise when learners may require a topic to be explained differently or reinforced before moving forward.
Full use of the available teaching time: Rather than focusing solely on completing course content, instructors use the full duration of the course to develop learner understanding and prepare attendees appropriately for assessment.
Continuous formative assessment: Questions, demonstrations, discussions and knowledge checks are used throughout the course to identify areas of uncertainty before the final assessment is reached.
Scenario-based learning: Realistic workplace scenarios allow learners to apply knowledge in context rather than relying solely on theoretical understanding.
Practical training: Hands-on exercises reinforce key learning points and provide trainers with further opportunities to check understanding, correct technique and build confidence.
Regular questions and answers: Learners are encouraged to ask questions throughout the course, creating opportunities to clarify terminology or concepts that may otherwise become barriers to understanding.
The objective is not to make assessments easier. It is to make the learning more effective, giving attendees the preparation and understanding they need to demonstrate competence against the required standards.
The results
The partnership has produced encouraging results for both Taiko and its learners.
Improving learner outcomes: The combination of experienced instructors, formative assessment, practical learning and additional attention to learner understanding has contributed to an upward trend in assessment results.
Reducing the impact of language barriers: While language can continue to present challenges for some learners, a more inclusive and adaptive teaching approach is helping mitigate its effect on learner understanding and assessment performance.
Meeting short-notice training requirements: Access to a wider instructor network enables First Aid Safety to offer Taiko greater flexibility when courses need to be arranged within comparatively short timescales.
Positive feedback from learners and management: Training delivered to date has generated consistently positive feedback, something reflected in comments received directly from Taiko's Head of Health & Safety.
Training across multiple disciplines: The relationship has expanded to encompass first aid, fire marshal and mental health training, providing Taiko with greater consistency across its wider health and safety training requirements.
Ongoing instructor development: We continue to review course outcomes and develop our instructors, particularly around inclusive teaching, learner engagement and supporting attendees who may face additional language barriers.
A trusted health and safety training relationship: Responsive communication, reliable course administration and a willingness to go beyond the immediate brief have helped First Aid Safety become one of Taiko's trusted training partners.
That relationship now extends beyond the courses we currently provide. Taiko regularly approaches us about wider health and safety training requirements, including subjects outside our existing portfolio, knowing that we will either identify an appropriate solution or help point them in the right direction.
Courses delivered to date
Level 3 Award in First Aid at Work
Practical, regulated first aid training designed to give nominated workplace first aiders the knowledge, skills and confidence to respond effectively to serious illness and injury.
Level 2 Award in Fire Safety for Fire Marshals
Workplace fire training giving nominated fire marshals the understanding to support effective fire safety and evacuation procedures.
Level 2 Award in Mental Health at Work
Training designed to improve understanding of mental health, develop confidence around conversations and help employees recognise when and how to signpost someone towards appropriate support.
Conclusion
From training provider to trusted partner. Large-scale manufacturing creates a distinctive training challenge.
Courses have to be delivered to the right people, at the right time, without unnecessarily disrupting an operation that never stops. Learners need to receive training that is technically robust while remaining accessible to a workforce with different roles, backgrounds and levels of English.
In our opinion, we are proud to say that First Aid Safety has worked closely with Taiko Foods to meet those challenges.
And that, for us, is what a successful training partnership looks like.
Health & safety training for food manufacturing businesses.
”We take pride in our unwavering commitment to responsibility, ensuring our practices reflect care for people, communities and the planet.
We believe in nurturing a harmonious relationship between our business and the planet we call home."
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