Our career opportunities are diverse and provide competitive pay and benefits!
There are four simple steps involved in becoming a Certified Food Professional.
We need you to make the decision and take the action to begin your journey to career growth. Together, we will successfully help you achieve your goal to become a Certified Food Professional!
Here are some frequently asked questions which will help you in deciding whether a new career as a Food Professional is for you.
Q: What are the certifications Harlan offers?
A: The most common is the Harlan CFP certification. To be eligible for the CFP Certification, team members must first complete the AFP process.
AFP stands for Apprentice Food Professional. This phase lasts 90 days from completing the on-boarding and initial training process. During your AFP training period, you will learn the basics of your role and tasks as well as the foundational elements for both product quality, communication, safety. During this time, you will undergo how the team you are assigned to works as well as the production line or team you are affiliated with. At the end of your apprenticeship, you will take a certification test and graduate to your CFP (Certified Food Professional) training period.
Your CFP or Certified Food Professional training period will last approximately 8 weeks. During this time, you will learn detailed information on how to fully master and excel in your role. You will also learn, and commit to memory, every aspect of manufacturing and plant safety. You will master and commit to memory every aspect associated with product manufacturing quality.
Harlan is the only food manufacturer to offer this certification to employees.
As part of this process, you will be taught more advanced communication and team collaboration techniques. During your CFP training process, all of these advanced skill will be put to practice as well. During this time period you will be scored by your supervisor as well as complete training and testing modules through our learning management system.
As your CFP training period concludes, you will take a final test and graduate to CFP (Certified Food Professional).
Q: What level of certification makes the most sense for me?
A: All employees must fall within one of three groups- New Hire Trainees, Apprentice Food Professional or Certified Food Professional. As your career advances, you will have the opportunity to also graduate to higher CFP levels. The below chart breaks down the different levels which include Several CFP Levels based on role and responsibility as well as Master CFP Options based on skill and expertise gained on the job.
Q: How will an AFP/CFP certification help in my career progression within Harlan?
A: Like many advanced certifications or degrees, having the CFP designation indicates to the industry that you have mastered specific best-practices as well as meet and/or exceed industry accepted standards and practices. As your CFP Certifications expand, so does upward mobility!
Q: What are the eligibility requirements for the AFP/CFP certifications?
A: First, you must be a legal resident of the country in which the Harlan facility you are applying to resides (i.e. United States or Canada). You must have proficiency in speaking, reading and understand the English language. English is our language for quality and safety.
Second, you must successfully complete your New Hire period. This means showing up for work on time and each day. During your New Hire period, you will be assigned a Harlan Food Professional Mentor. Engaging with and learning from your mentor is also a requirement to be eligible for moving from New Hire to AFP and from AFP to CFP.
Q: How do I keep my certification valid?
A: Each manufacturing line must meet certain defined performance criteria, including that team members all being in good standing. This means all employees tied to a specific team (such as maintenance, shipping, etc.) or a specific manufacturing line must be in good standing as a New Hire, AFP or CFP. Also, each team and line must successfully complete and pass on-going audits. If all Food Professionals are in good standing and their team or line passes the audits, they achieve Center of Excellence certification.
Also, each CFP must re-certify for their CFP status annually. Certification remains valid as long as they successfully re-certify and their team or line have an active COE status. Not passing your CFP re-certification or your team/line's inability to regain a lost COE status will invalidate the CFP status of team members affiliated with that team or production line.
