The Boards of the Retail Meat Industry Training Organisation and Competenz, the industry training organisation for the Engineering, Manufacturing, Baking, and Food and Beverage Manufacturing industries, have this week approved the signing of a Memorandum of Intent to investigate a full merger of the two organisations.

Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) oversee vocational training for the industries they cover. Retail Meat ITO works with the Retail Meat industry to develop skilled and qualified butchers; Competenz works with companies in the manufacturing sector to develop skilled and qualified bakers and mechanical engineers and to build the transferable skills of employees from factory floor to management.

Retail Meat ITO and Competenz are both high performing and financially viable ITOs, and achieve top quartile training outcomes for their trainees and industries. The proposed merger seeks to achieve improved efficiency through the sharing of back office functions; as well as increased front line support and resourcing for the benefit of Retail Meat employers and trainees.

The purpose of this announcement is to let it be publicly known that the two organisations are entering a process of due diligence while engaging in consultation with their industries on the proposed merger.