training-plan

---
name: training-plan
description: Turns a new starter and a job into a week by week training plan with a named trainer, a dated sign-off for every skill, and fixed review dates, ending at the week they can run the section without you. Use when someone starts and the plan is currently "follow Marco around and you will pick it up".
---

# From their first day to running the section on their own, week by week

You give me the job, the person who is starting, the date they start, who is available to train them and how many hours a week they work. You get back a written plan broken into weeks, with every skill listed as something you can watch them do, a named trainer against each one, a sign-off sheet with dates, the food hygiene and allergen training named properly rather than assumed, and three review meetings already in the diary before day one.

## What it does

1. **Write down what "running the section" means before you plan a single day.** Finish this sentence in one line: at the end of this plan, this person can be left alone on <station or section> on a <busiest realistic night> and I do not have to watch them. Then list the things that sentence contains. For a larder section that might be twelve dishes to spec, the mise for a Saturday, ordering from the walk-in, and calling away with the pass. For a bar it might be the till, the card machine, the cellar change, thirty drinks to spec, refusals, and closing down alone. For a waiter it might be six tables, the handheld, the allergen conversation, and cashing up. Between eight and fifteen items is right. Fewer than eight and you have not been honest about the job; more than fifteen and you are describing two jobs and the plan will fail in week three when the person is drowning.

2. **Turn every item into something you can watch, and put a number in it.** "Good with customers" cannot be trained or signed off. "Takes an order for a table of six on the handheld, including one allergy, without help, twice" can. "Knows the menu" becomes "describes any of the twelve starters and what is in it, asked at random, ten out of twelve correct". "Can do the mise" becomes "preps the full larder mise for a Friday inside three hours, checked by the sous". The number is what stops a trainer signing something off because the person seems fine. Where you genuinely cannot put a number on it, write the observable behaviour and the situation you will watch it in, and say who decides.

3. **Split the list into three gates, because not everything is equally urgent.** Gate one is everything the person must be able to do before they are unsupervised near food, drink or a guest at all: handwashing, the allergen question, where the first aid kit and the fire exits are, what to do if someone says the word allergy, how to say "let me check" and who to check with. Gate two is everything they need before they hold a station on a normal night. Gate three is everything they need before the busiest night. Nothing from gate two gets trained before gate one is signed. This ordering is the single biggest difference between a plan that works and a list of everything the job involves handed over on a Monday.

4. **Make day one three things and nothing else.** Somewhere to put their coat and their phone, a named person who is expecting them, and the gate one items. Then send them home. Acas is direct about the temptation to do more: "Avoid giving too much information on the first day. This could be overwhelming", and advises employers to "spread out activities so the worker is not overwhelmed". Put the paperwork in the first hour while they are fresh, and say out loud that they are paid for the time: Acas notes that workers have the right to be paid for any hours they work from the first day of employment, "including any time they spend on induction". A day one that ends with the person knowing where the toilets are, who their person is, and what to do if a guest says "allergy" is a successful day one.

5. **Name the food hygiene and allergen training with a level, a provider and a date, never as "trained".** The legal duty sits in Annex II Chapter XII of retained Regulation (EC) 852/2004, which requires that "food handlers are supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity", and separately that those responsible for the HACCP procedure "have received adequate training in the application of the HACCP principles". Note the wording: it names no course and no level, so a plan that just writes "Level 2" without saying what this person actually does is guessing at the rule rather than following it. Write the work activity first, then the training you are giving for it, then who gave it and when. The Food Standards Agency adds the allergen duty separately: "Food businesses must make sure that staff receive training on allergens." That is its own line on the plan with its own date, because it is a different duty from food hygiene and it is the one that gets absorbed into a general induction and then cannot be evidenced.

6. **Put one name against every skill, not a team and not a rota.** "The kitchen will show them" means nobody shows them. Each item on the list gets one trainer, and if that person is off on the day the item was scheduled, the item moves, it does not get reassigned to whoever is standing there. Acas recommends assigning "a mentor or 'buddy'", described as "someone else in the team who supports the new worker to settle in", and this is a separate role from the trainers: the buddy answers the questions the person is too embarrassed to ask a manager, and should not be their line manager. Pick someone who has been there long enough to know where things are and recently enough to remember what was confusing.

7. **Build a one page sign-off sheet, and make the new starter sign it too.** One row per skill, with four columns: the skill written as the observable thing, the trainer's name, the date it was signed, and a box the new starter initials to say they agree they can do it. The second signature is the part people leave out and it is the part that works, because a person who has initialled "can take an allergy order unaided" and then freezes at a table will tell you, whereas a person who has only been told they are trained will not. Where an item cannot be signed yet, leave it blank rather than writing a date in advance. A sheet with three blanks on it at week four is a working document. A sheet that was filled in on the Friday to tidy it up is worthless and, if anything ever goes wrong, actively harmful.

8. **Book the three review meetings before day one, with dates in the diary.** Acas describes probation reviews as "formal checkpoints during an employee's probation period", says the meeting "should be one-to-one", and adds that "Employees should also have regular informal check-ins throughout their probation period". Put the first at the end of week one, the second at the halfway point of the probation period, and the last a week before probation ends rather than on the day, so there is still time to act on what is said. At each one, work down the sign-off sheet, not down your impression. Acas is clear that managers must "keep records of probation reviews" and "share the records with the employee after each review meeting", so each review produces one page that both people have seen. The final review exists to decide one of three things: passed, extended with named items and a new date, or not passed. Take the actual decision to your HR adviser before you deliver it.

9. **At the end, fix the plan for the next person rather than filing it.** Ask the new starter two questions while it is fresh: what did nobody tell you that you needed in the first week, and what were you taught twice. Then change the plan. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development puts the business case for taking this seriously as follows: "Effective induction may also positively affect employee turnover, absenteeism and employer brand." In hospitality the cost lands in a specific place, which is that the person who leaves in week nine takes the training hours of everyone who taught them with them. A plan that has been corrected by the last three starters is the only version worth using on the fourth.

## Then it checks

1. The plan opens with one sentence naming the station, the night and the date at which this person will be unsupervised, and the skill list under it has between eight and fifteen items.
2. Every item is written as something a named person can watch happen, with a number or a stated situation in it, and no item contains the words "good", "confident", "understands" or "knows" on its own.
3. Every item is assigned to gate one, gate two or gate three, and no gate two or three item is scheduled before every gate one item has a sign-off row.
4. Food hygiene training and allergen training appear as two separate rows, each naming the work activity it covers, who delivered it and the date, and neither is recorded as complete without a date.
5. Every skill has exactly one named trainer, a buddy is named who is not the person's line manager, and no row says "team", "kitchen", "whoever is on" or a rota name.
6. Three review meetings appear with actual dates before the start date, the last of them falling at least seven days before probation ends, and the sign-off sheet has a column for the new starter's own initials.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never record a skill as signed off on a date the training did not happen, and never backfill the sheet at the end of the week. The sheet's only value is that it is true on the day; a tidied sheet tells you someone can do something they cannot, which is how a person gets left alone on a section they are not ready for.
- Never name a training level, certificate or qualification as legally required unless you read that requirement in the law or in regulator guidance. The training duty in food hygiene is written as commensurate with the work activity and names no course, so the plan describes the activity and hands the choice of course to the owner and their food safety adviser.
- Never let a probation review be delivered as a surprise. Everything said at the final review must already appear on the sign-off sheet or in an earlier review, because a first-time criticism at the meeting that decides someone's job is both unfair and the thing your adviser will ask about afterwards.
- This output is a working document prepared for the owner's HR adviser, solicitor or food safety adviser to check before it is used. It does not decide whether a probation period has been lawfully ended, it is not a food safety management system, and it is not employment law advice.

## Built from
- Retained Regulation (EC) No 852/2004 on the hygiene of foodstuffs, Annex II Chapter XII (Training), https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2004/852/annex/II/chapter/XII, read 14 September 2026: the wording that food handlers must be "supervised and instructed and/or trained in food hygiene matters commensurate with their work activity" and the separate HACCP training point, which is why step 5 writes the work activity before the course and refuses to assert a required level.
- Food Standards Agency, "Allergen guidance for food businesses", https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/allergen-guidance-for-food-businesses/allergen-guidance-for-food-businesses, page updated 17 July 2026, read 14 September 2026: the separate duty to train staff on allergens, which is why allergen training is its own dated row rather than a line inside the induction.
- Acas, "Planning an induction programme", https://www.acas.org.uk/inductions/planning-an-induction-programme, last updated 30 June 2026, read 14 September 2026: the warning about overwhelming a new worker, the buddy or mentor role, and the point that induction time is paid, which shaped the three-item day one in step 4 and the buddy in step 6.
- Acas, "Reviews" (probation periods), https://www.acas.org.uk/probation-periods/reviews, last updated 24 July 2026, read 14 September 2026: probation reviews as formal one-to-one checkpoints alongside informal check-ins, the duty to keep records and share them with the employee, and the three possible outcomes, which set the review structure in step 8.
- Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, "Induction", https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/induction-factsheet/, 21 July 2026, read 14 September 2026: the definition of induction as helping a new recruit settle in with the knowledge and support to perform the role, and the link between effective induction and turnover, absenteeism and employer brand, which is the argument in step 9 for correcting the plan rather than filing it.

# Build the week by week training plan and the sign-off sheet - Codex task

## You are given

- `{STARTER}` - name, job, start date, hours per week, probation weeks, line manager, buddy.
- `{END_STATE}` - one sentence: the station, the night and the week they work unsupervised.
- `{SKILLS}` - one line per skill: `skill text | gate (1, 2 or 3) | trainer name | expected week`. Between 8 and 15 lines.
- `{STATUTORY}` - lines of `training name | work activity it covers | provider | planned date`. Food hygiene and allergen training are separate lines.
- `{SHIFT_PATTERN}` - the days of the week the starter works.

## Produce

1. `training-plan.md` - header (starter, job, start date, line manager, buddy, probation end date, the `{END_STATE}` sentence), then one section per week to the probation end week. Each week lists only the skills whose expected week matches, as `skill text - trainer: <name> - gate <n>`. Week 1 holds every gate 1 skill and nothing else. An empty week reads "consolidation week, no new skills".
2. `sign-off.csv` - columns exactly: `row,skill,gate,trainer,expected_week,date_signed,trainer_initials,starter_initials,notes`. One row per `{SKILLS}` line, ordered by gate then week. Leave the date and initials columns empty.
3. `statutory-training.csv` - columns exactly: `training,work_activity,provider,planned_date,date_completed,delivered_by,certificate_reference`. One row per `{STATUTORY}` line, with the last three columns empty.
4. `reviews.md` - three reviews with real dates: end of week 1, the midpoint of probation, and at least 7 days before probation ends. Each has a blank block: date, attendees, skills reviewed, agreed actions, owner, next date, outcome (passed / extended / not passed).
5. `gaps.md` - numbered list of every problem: a skill with no trainer; a skill scheduled on a day the starter does not work; a gate 2 or 3 skill before all gate 1 skills; a skill reading only "good", "confident", "knows" or "understands"; a missing food hygiene or allergen line; a buddy who is also the line manager.

## Rules

- Never invent a skill, name, date, provider or training level. Anything missing goes to `gaps.md`.
- Never state that a training level or certificate is legally required.
- Copy `{SKILLS}` text verbatim. Do not reword it.
- Never write a value into `date_signed`, `date_completed` or any initials column.
- Dates as DD Month YYYY. British English. No em dash characters.
- Do not delete or rewrite any input file.

## Return

Print, in this order: every file path created; the skill count per gate; the first and last week used; the three review dates and the days between the last one and the probation end date; the row count in `sign-off.csv` and whether it equals the `{SKILLS}` line count; the `gaps.md` item count. Then print `training-plan.md` in full.