Food Route

To help children and young people engage with the Core Competences, a series of focus groups and workshops were arranged throughout the UK. The original competences were rephrased in an age-appropriate way, and tested to ensure that young people understand what they meant and how they could achieve the different competences. The focus group sessions helped to gather feedback from young people about the language used, as well as the design. 

What resources are available?

To engage young people aged 11-14 years and 14-16 years with the Core Competences, a series of competence journals have been created. These act as journals of evidence, showing how young people engage with the competences in a meaningful way. 

The journals set young people with a number of tasks in order for them to demonstrate their understanding and accomplishment of each competence. The Core Competences have been rewritten to be age-appropriate for young people.

The journals are:

• Diet and health;
• Consumer awareness;
• Cooking;
• Food safety;
• Active lifestyles.

Although the competences have been created for particular age phases, you may wish to use the different journals for young people at different ages or abilities. For example, you may wish to use the 14-16 years journals to challenge more able students, or use the resources developed for primary aged children for those with special educational needs.

A certificate is also provided. The certificate can be awarded after the young person has completed all the competences, or when they have successfully completed one competence area, e.g. cooking. 

A  Users' guide is also available.