12 Arable prospects looking up Vol 15 No 46, November 28, 2016
farmersweekly.co.nz
Ag courses under threat There is definitely a changing of the guard going on and that is a good thing.
Neal Wallace neal.wallace@nzx.com
W
EEKS after the Tertiary Education Commission said it had fresh money to invest in subdegree primary sector courses the providers of that training for about 1000 people have signalled courses are ending. In addition, prospective students attending Telford next year have been told it could be next month before courses were confirmed, leading to concerns sub-degree primary sector training was descending in to chaos. Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce said the sector was enduring “a changing of the guard” and he was confident a stronger, more efficient delivery of skills training would emerge. “There is definitely a changing of the guard going on and that is a good thing,” he said. “There has been concern over the years about the effectiveness and quality of training.” The introduction this year of contestable funding was central to that. “Competitive allocation is an opportunity to reset sub-degree agricultural training, to look at the quality providers and allocate more money to those that are growing and getting good results for the sector.” Joyce said he wanted to see more work-based training to better meet the needs of employers. Federated Farmers board member Rick Powdrell described
Steven Joyce Tertiary Education Minister
School’s out Courses ending: • AgNZ, 452 students. 105 to complete courses next year. • Lincoln’s Telford Divison, 500 students studying off campus. • Landcorp, 5 on farm cadet scheme. Questions remain: • Lincoln’s Telford Division.
the situation as chaotic and called for a review of where sub-degree training was failing and why. “This is just more evidence of how the whole thing seems to be breaking down.” He questioned if there were too many training providers and their viability was threatened by contestable funding. Earlier this month Lincoln’s Telford Division scrapped vocational courses delivered by third parties after a TECrequested audit revealed discrepancies between what was paid and what was delivered. A review by PGG Wrightson found its AgNZ training subsidiary
was no longer a core focus or fitting its business strategy and the 20 full and part time staff were being consulted about its future. Landcorp has also announced its AgNZ-trained farm cadet scheme was ending because it did not attract enough students. Lincoln University has also signalled plans to shed 16 academic and 35 non-academic roles at its two campuses. Adding to the confusion and uncertainty, Lincoln has signalled it could stop training at its Telford campus as early as this year as it addressed financial difficulties and static student enrolment.
Telford stakeholders meeting on Friday were united in their view the institution had a crucial role in agricultural training and had to find “appropriate, sustainable and durable solutions to ensure this happens”. Education providers were doing due diligence that might result in Telford programmes transferring to them. It was also revealed the TEC had made an informal offer to fund 235 effective full time levels three and four students next year allowing the continuation of Telford’s residential training programmes. Landcorp’s organisational
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development manager Celyn Fenwick said for 12 years AgNZ had taught its Future Farmer course at Landcorp’s Aratiatia Station near Taupo but it appeared students now wanted to earn a wage while they learnt. Landcorp was attracting sufficient numbers of quality, entry-level school leavers or graduates from Telford and Taratahi and the company offered regular and ongoing staff training. PGG Wrightson chief executive Mark Dewdney said AgNZ was a small unit and no longer fitted its core focus. AgNZ was a national training provider which Dewdney said attracted annual TEC funding in “the single million dollars”. Courses offered included Future Farmer, a 44-week full time course covering all aspects of farm management, an introduction to rural skills aimed at school leavers, operating rural vehicles and equipment, organics and a new course on animal care for small block holders. PGG Wrightson bought AgNZ in 1993 and 347 students would complete their courses by Christmas and another 105 would be able to complete their two-year courses next year.
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