CE Outlook

Developing quality new entrants for primary industry

2010-03-10T17:03:00.000-08:00

In 2008 the Government announced a plan to develop half a dozen national trades academies. The aim, says the Ministry of Education, is “to get young New Zealanders engaged in education and equip tomorrow’s workforce with relevant skills by linking with the wider industry training system”

In plain English – give kids the opportunity to get qualified as they learn about different trades, so they’re better prepared for the workplace.

The initiative is an excellent one.

The outcome they’re aiming for is a pool of people ready to hit the ground running in their chosen industry. Having had work experience, theory, and most importantly gained the context for their learning, national academy graduates will be able to make better job choices, and perform better in them.

The academies – depending on the eventual funding model – also address the longstanding issue of investing in people to prepare them for the workplace before they leave school.

Agriculture ITO was eager to develop an establishment plan for an academy. We saw the concept fitting well with an existing plan we had with our partners in Forestry and Horticulture training to develop a pan-industry National Certificate in Primary Industries (Level 1).

The strength of the combined Ag-Forestry-Hort proposal for a primary sector academy lies in its national scope and our strong relationships and processes for working with providers.

In a nutshell, our proposal sees trade academy students in years 11-13 (ages 16-18) enrol in a study programme that allows them to achieve dual qualifications, NCEA (school) and National Certificate (industry), at levels 1, 2 and 3.

At Year 11, the learning is mainly in school. At year 12, it’s a blend of school and workplace, with tertiary providers involved. For ag students, some residential course-work is also likely – a week or two at a place like Taratahi or Telford.

At year 13, most learning would take place through a tertiary provider and work placement.

It’s a pathway that provides opportunities for young people to gain experience in the workplace and get qualified for it, at the same time as giving them a choice as to which industry they will pursue.

A Primary Industry Trade Academy is an ideal vehicle to manage it through. The strong pathways through learning, into the workforce and on to more industry training at levels four, five and beyond are a key feature.

And perhaps best of all, because of our experience and relationships, there’d be no need to duplicate infrastructure to run it.

The joint Ag-Forestry-Hort proposal was not one of the five the Ministry initially selected.

However, we are among the six other groups the Ministry is working with as this new concept takes shape. We were recently awarded $100,000 to fully investigate the feasibility of its plans.

Either way, the NC in Primary Industries will be going ahead, and that can only have a good effect on the pool of new entrants for what are still New Zealand’s biggest export earners.

We’ve had good support in this from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry – as we should. We are, after all, dealing with the future of our most important economic sector.

With good management and foresight, we should soon be laying firm foundations for the next generation of the world’s leading agriculture and forestry business managers.

Comments:

“Too many young people are leaving school too early without and skills or qualifications as they do not find the school environment suited to their needs. The academy is a positive alternative to keep these students motivated to succeed in a practical and involved way. They can build a rewarding career for themselves in the primary industries so critical to the nations economic success.”
Ian Boyd, CEO of FITEC

"Putting trade training back into secondary schools is a sound move. It is estimated today's learner will have 10-14 jobs by the time they turn 38. We must educate for change by giving young people with an interest in the outdoors the opportunity to pick up transferable skills across the land-based industries to help ensure they have multiple career opportunities".
Mike Finlayson, CE, HortITO

Vocational pathway vital

2009-12-06T20:12:00.000-08:00

The Government’s Draft Tertiary Education Strategy is a far-reaching document that has important consequences for the agriculture industry and the tertiary education and training sector in general.

Agriculture ITO supports the over-arching direction of the Strategy but has concerns about its lack of emphasis on workplace and vocational education.

We strongly support the Government’s determination to upskill the nation, and its measures to address the fundamental building blocks of learning – language, numeracy and literacy. We also support its goal of tackling the confusing proliferation of qualifications in the marketplace.

Overall, however, our concern is that the Draft Strategy focuses heavily on the more traditional models of learning through a tertiary institution, and does not appear to pay any consideration to the role vocational pathways play in improving national productivity performance. The Tertiary Education Strategy needs to reflect the fact that vocational and workplace learning is as valid an educational pathway as attending a tertiary educational institution. For many New Zealanders it is a preferable and more effective pathway.

This is particularly the case for many young people, including those who have failed to engage with the secondary school system. The Draft Tertiary Education Strategy talks of students leaving school and going into a tertiary education institute to upskill but its failure to acknowledge that this is not the only, or even the best, pathway for many is a concern.

For many students the workplace and industry-based learning is the best way to become functioning citizens, contributing to the economy and participating fully in society.

Boosting productivity

Productivity gains for a country don’t happen in a tertiary education institution. They happen in the workplace. They are made at a micro economic, firm and individual level. If we as a country are not building the capability of people in the workplace – including frontline management skills in the workplace – we won’t get beyond talking about productivity gains.

The Tertiary Education Strategy must ensure the tertiary education sector is responsive to the education and training needs of industry. This is fundamental to upskilling the workforce and driving productivity. The Strategy needs to acknowledge the crucial leadership role that Industry Training Organisations play in this area.

Defining value and quality

Another area of concern is the Draft Strategy’s strong emphasis on higher level qualifications. In industries such as agriculture, there must also be a focus on lower level qualifications to give employees essential work-ready skills. An effective tertiary education strategy, therefore, must place an equally strong emphasis on high quality, low-level qualifications, which are vital to the economy. They provide the base skills and capability needed for learners who wish to move onto higher achievement.

Certainly in our industry there is a need for more people achieving at level four and above on the Qualifications Framework, but not at the expense of those gaining vital capability skills. We need people at all levels. We need people achieving at an advanced stage, doing increasingly multi-dimensional qualifications. And, to achieve the ‘pyramid-model’ structure required, we need plenty of people taking the initial steps to be productive and effective learners in the agricultural sector.

Qualifications confusion

We support the priority which the Draft Tertiary Education Strategy gives to reducing the proliferation of qualifications. The recent Review of the Land-Based Provision identified concerns with the proliferation, duplication and gaps in the tertiary qualifications available.

It does not make sense for the Government to fund qualifications which duplicate those already available on the nationally recognised Qualifications Framework. Steps made to address this proliferation will help clear up the confusion which exists.

Timing issues

On a pragmatic level, we have some concerns about the timing of investment decisions. These decisions, to be made in 2010, will be based on past performance. Unfortunately, this approach does not acknowledge the far-reaching changes that we have made recently to raise quality and improve completion rates.

We believe the results that these changes will yield, need to be factored into investment decisions.

What do we do with our Futures Research?

2009-11-09T17:56:00.000-08:00

Here’s one example:

Before long, I think we are going to see a greater emphasis on giving comfort to the 15–18 million people who consume our products overseas – the hotels and supermarket chains. This audience is absolutely vital for our future exports.

Being able to provide that comfort will mean meeting the highest standards of animal and environmental welfare.

New Zealand is a long way from its major markets, which makes us vulnerable on a number of fronts. So, our response has to be one of quality – food quality, environmental quality, animal welfare and people quality.

We have to be able to demonstrate this, and training is fundamental to a genuine assurance of quality.

Here’s another example: Fonterra is currently involved in 18 countries. What are the ramifications of that for our industry?

To preserve and build on New Zealand‘s quality brand, it might mean helping dairy farmers control production in other countries.

What are your thoughts?

We will never meet the big challenges that lie ahead without a workforce that is skilled and smart in the way it does things.

That has been our history as an industry, and that must be our future.

Our Futures Research project will help us respond swiftly to industry training requirements so we can help the industry prepare for its probably future.

Partners wanted:

Now that the project is up and running, we are looking for five or six organisations to be partners with us. If you are interested, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss the project further with you. Please get in touch.

Future scenarios

2009-11-04T14:56:00.000-08:00

What have our Futures Research scanners and weavers picked out as some future trends?

Some of the scenarios really stretch the mind and make you think about the future that awaits our industry, maybe in the not-too-distant future.

Some topics covered in the reports are:

animals as pharmaceutical factories
food security in difficult times
likely regulatory environments affecting exports
protecting our clean, green, isolated image
preserving our water wealth
the Post-global Financial Crash world
the New Colonialism – foreign direct investment
the changing face of our rural landscape
where have all the farmers gone?

It’s vital for a training organisation such as ourselves to look at the possible and probable futures for our industry.

This project involves looking out 50 years or so, but issues are being identified that might require action from Agriculture ITO over the next few years.

What do you think? What future issues do you think are most important and what do they mean for our industries and people?

In my next Outlook – what do we do with our Futures Research?

Reading the future

2009-10-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

What are the big challenges coming over the horizon and how are we, as the leader in training for the agriculture and water industries, placed to meet them?

Our ability to anticipate and respond to these challenges is critical to the ongoing success of our industry. We must be at the ready.

That’s why I am very excited about the Futures Research project that we have launched this year. This project is all about identifying key trends and drivers in New Zealand’s water and agriculture industries over the next 20 years.

This research will inform all areas of our business – strategy, programmes, how we approach our customers and our channels to market. It focuses on trends both in New Zealand and internationally.

How does Futures Research work?

It involves two groups – ‘scanners’ and ‘weavers’.

The scanners scan the local and global environment. They identify ideas and trends that might impact on the industry over the next 10 to 20 years, assemble relevant articles and material, write summaries and enter them into a database – around 700 summaries so far.

The weavers analyse the material, explore themes in more depth and write up their findings in a quarterly report – two of these have been completed to date.

I have found the report information so far fascinating. In my next Outlook, I’ll tell you about some of the scenarios.

Thinking smart in a recession

2009-09-06T21:20:00.000-07:00

For the first time in ten years, Agriculture ITO training numbers in New Zealand are down. Not by a large margin but significant all the same. Clearly this trend is related to the economic downturn and how farmers see their future.

I can sympathise with the plight of small to medium business owners looking to tighten their belts amid a host of financial pressures. But for the industry as a whole, this trend if it worsens is worrying and threatens longer-term prospects for recovery. To put it bluntly, cutting training is the worst possible response in an industry that relies on quality, skills and innovation to remain competitive.

Cutting training is illogical. We’re only as good as our people.

The reality is training pays. It boosts the bottom line by raising productivity and giving people the skills to reduce on-farm costs. Don’t take my word for it. For a number of years now international research has shown that training is a genuine investment which boosts your bottom line.

Research we have done verifies these international findings. It shows, for example, that if you own a dairy farm, every trainee you have has the potential to deliver you up to a 30% improvement in the way you use your feed, a 20% improvement in heat detection, a 24% improvement in mastitis detection and a 30% improvement in lameness detection. We estimate that’s worth $8,000 in improved productivity for a staff member with responsibility for a herd of 128 cows.

Studies in the sheep and beef industry estimate that a well trained staff member can contribute up to $17,000 to a business by managing pasture and stock better.

What these studies prove is that training is crucial in helping farms achieve greater productivity and reducing costs, the very thing that farmers want to achieve in an economic down-turn.

It’s not the people or the training that need to be reduced, it’s the wastage. Now, more than ever, New Zealand needs smarter farmers, not fewer farmers.

Another benefit of training is staff retention, as training opportunities increase team member motivation.

The real worry for our industry is that, even in good times, our attitudes towards training vary wildly. Our research shows that 25% of farmers are enthusiastic about training and it is no accident that these are our top-performing farms. Year after year award-winners in farming come from farms where there is a strong training culture in place.

A further 50% of our farmers are neutral about the value of training. They still need to be convinced. They still view training as good for the industry rather than being good for their business.

The final 25% completely fail to see how training can help their businesses become more profitable.

I’m making it my mission to address these negative attitudes and to show people how Agriculture ITO training has one over-riding purpose – to help businesses farm more productively. Every course, every qualification, every assessment is based on a practical, ‘can-do’ approach, involving skills that can be immediately applied on the farm.

We’re talked to farmers the length and breadth of the country and their experience and needs have shaped our training system. What is more, Agriculture ITO training represents incredibly good value. It is a not-for-profit organisation which is heavily subsidised by major industry players. Why? Because stakeholders know that training isn’t luxury for good times, it’s essential all of the time. Without quality people, you won’t get quality export products.

Finally, a little perspective is called for. The New Zealand agriculture industry is in good heart. It still accounts for 64% of everything New Zealand sells, and $25 billion of exports annually. Although export prices are volatile and subject to currency fluctuations, demand for New Zealand’s primary produce remains very strong and even in a global down-turn, long-term prospects for growth are positive.

The only thing that will jeopardise our recovery is short-term thinking. If we drain the talent pool, if we do nothing to upskill those who remain, we really will be shooting ourselves in the foot.

It’s our skills and knowledge that will see us through, and having the confidence to back our staff on farm.