For two days in October, Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) Chief Executive, Janice Shiner, and her team were immersed in the dairy industry courtesy of Agriculture ITO.
The field trip, says Agriculture ITO Chief Executive Kevin Bryant, was designed to give Janice Shiner, who was accompanied by TEC's Acting Policy Manager, Richard Dirks, and Communications Manager, Andrew Bristol, a practical overview of the dairy industry and its strategic direction. It kicked off with a dinner hosted by Agriculture ITO Chair Tony Wilding at his dairy farm in Tirau, and included visits to a dairy farm in Matamata, a FarmSafe class and a Dexcel off job learning group. The action packed trip wound-up with a visit to a Dexcel research farm in Ruakura and a presentation on the dairy industry strategy by Dexcel Chief Executive Tim Mackle and his senior management team.
"The field trip was an opportunity for Ms Shiner to see and experience how Agriculture ITO is fulfilling its industry training obligations, interacting with industry, and to reinforce our leadership role," Mr Bryant says.
A feature of the field trip was the presence of Agriculture ITO Training Adviser, Fiona Linton. "Ms Shiner and her team were literally following the route of an Agriculture ITO Training Adviser for those two days," Mr Bryant explains. "They experienced the realities of the long distances that are travelled on the back roads of rural New Zealand on an average day. Through Fiona's eyes they saw the unique challenges our training advisers face in delivering industry training to the sector."
Flexibility, commitment and passion in the dairy industry
Mr Bryant says that the visit with Matamata sharemilkers, Chris and Teresa Moore, and their two Modern Apprentices, Mike Karakare and Cameron Spencer, provided the TEC team with an insight into the daily reality of dairy farming and the extra commitment that training demands from trainees and their employers.
TEC's Acting Policy Manager, Richard Dirks says that the TEC team learnt a lot over the two days. "Spending time with Chris and Teresa and their Modern Apprentices, Mike and Cameron, really highlighted to us the challenges facing the industry. There is considerable geographical isolation for many farmers and long hours to be worked. We were impressed with the systems in place to ensure training was maintained as a priority.
"At TEC we talk a lot about the need for flexibility in tertiary training," Mr Dirks continues. "Farmer-trainers and trainees encapsulate that flexibility and they are passionate and committed. When we visited the dairy farm, the Modern Apprentices had been up from 4.30am milking. On days when they attend block courses, they manage their farm work load as well. They do all this and maintain a high level of enthusiasm."
Mr Dirks says that a key contributor to the success of training in the dairy industry is the industry's maturity. "It's got its act together in terms of future planning and creating learning and career pathways - Mike and Cameron as Modern Apprentices have goals - they know where they are going."
Dairy industry strategy dovetails into tertiary reforms
Earlier this year the Minister for Tertiary Education, Hon Dr Michael Cullen, announced a series of reforms for the tertiary sector. The essence of the reforms is putting in place new incentives and mechanisms to improve the quality of tertiary education provision across the whole tertiary system, ensuring that education and training programmes have greater relevance to the needs of the economy.
Agriculture ITO is participating in a dairy industry strategic planning project on human capability and capacity in the sector, which Mr Bryant says dovetails into the objectives of the tertiary reforms. "The strategies that are emerging from the project are focused on productivity and performance factors which align with the key tertiary reform objective of achieving economic transformation," he says.
"We put it to Ms Shiner following the Dexcel presentation that TEC could use the dairy industry and possibly the wider pastoral sector as a test case to implement the thinking behind tertiary reforms," Mr Bryant continues. "Agriculture ITO is well placed to do this. Our industry training plan, which is linked to the human capability work, is well-advanced. It covers the learning needs of industry including providing support to the polytechnic sector, linkages with universities and schools and increasing the numbers of top-end graduates."
Mr Dirks says that the TEC team was impressed by the amount of work by all parts of the industry that had gone into the dairy strategy. "Essentially it is an industry that has recognised the importance and value of a cohesive approach - it has a shared vision," Mr Dirks says. "We were impressed by the innovation and research going on in the industry and that the integrated planning included short, medium and long term objectives with strategies to meet them."
Mr Dirks says that the strategic direction and organisation of the dairy industry bodes well for the tertiary reforms. "It's a forward thinking model and a good example of where the tertiary sector wants to head. The dairy industry understands the place of tertiary education through the whole system and it is getting results."
Mr Bryant says that communication is continuing with TEC and that Agriculture ITO has high hopes that its offer will be taken up. "We have the strength of industry support behind us as leaders and spokespeople on matters of training and education.
"And, critically, we are willing to collaborate and engage with all stakeholders to get the best outcome for the future development for our industry and the country."
Sidebar on Tertiary Reforms
The objectives of the Tertiary Reforms are to develop and implement a new investment system for the tertiary education sector that:
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