Farmers critical of training for young farmers
The quality of training for young farmers has been criticised by Waikato Federated Farmers, but the country’s biggest ITO says standards are improving, Gerald Piddock reports.
The state of training in the agricultural industry has come under fire by farmers who claim the qualifications being given to students lacked value and credibility. They were not properly preparing students for the realities of working dayto-day on a farm, members of Federated Farmers said at a recent regional executive meeting in Hamilton.
As a farm cadet, Waikato dairy section chairman Craig Littin said he was nurtured through the industry.
‘‘It used to have a system where you were assisted even through the interview process with your employer. They were vetted and the training – where I see the crux of the problem now is all unit-based.’’
He said it was hard for farmers to know how well a student had done when enrolled in training and felt the credibility was not there.
‘‘We’re having guys coming to interviews on farms saying we’re at a herd managers level – which is a pretty attractive salary package, but they can’t even accomplish simple feed budgets on farms.’’
Farmers wanted a qualification where they knew exactly what an employee was capable of, he said.
‘‘None of my family has family farms. We came through the industry and gained these qualifications through a very good system and we built our way up through the industry to buy our own farms.
‘‘I want my staff to do the same and I don’t see industry training as the mechanism for doing that.’’
Training courses needed to have a tougher entry criteria and have credible qualifications at the end of it.
Littin wanted to see courses that had a pass or fail grade that gave him confidence as an employer of exactly where their skill level was.
‘‘Across the board, there was a huge amount of money going into training organisations and we are not seeing as an industry the quality coming out.’’
There had been widespread dissatisfaction among farmers about the quality of the education being taught to students, Waikato Federated Farmers provincial president Chris Lewis said.
However, support remained for groups
‘‘In the ideal world we want the training to be high quality – practical as well as theory.’’
such as Primary ITO and new changes would hopefully address a lot of the concerns had by farmers.
‘‘They have answered the criticism of us, and by redesigning the courses and the way they deliver them,’’ he said.
Many dissatisfied farmers believed the ITO model was about bums on seats and not about delivering what farmers wanted, he said.
Unfortunately, many farmers based their opinion on the dealings with an employee that had gone through that old system and failed to met the expectations of the farmer.
‘‘To be fair, they have improved things.’’
Those changes have happened this year.
‘‘In the ideal world we want the training to be high quality – practical as well as theory,’’ he said.
The industry had changed over the past decade with a lot more emphasis was placed on environmental management.
‘‘It’s not just farmers farming , it’s
While farmers have criticised agricultural training, Primary ITO chief executive Mark Jeffries says quality control measures are now in place. employees and they need to be up-to-date with up-to-date regulations and what has required of them.’’
The meeting’s guest speaker, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said the state of industry training was worrying.
‘‘We’re very concerned about the lack of formal, full qualifications and training for people that don’t want to go to university.’’
Newly appointed Primary ITO chief executive Mark Jeffries said the organisation took their responsibilities very seriously to promote a consistent and credible outcome to their trainees.
‘‘We’re always open to a conversation on how to do things smarter and better.’’
Their training providers also took any criticism seriously, he said.
The organisation had made changes since the end of 2011 to improve their training.
This included working with DairyNZ for some time to get standardisation in the descriptions of the different roles on dairy farms.
This would create a common language for the trainee and explain to them the pathway for advancement in the industry, he said.
‘‘And more importantly so for dairy farm employers, that when they are looking for staff, they can quickly identify the level of competency and therefore the role they are looking for.’’
They had also introduced quality assurance processes to ensure these qualifications were sound. The trainee typically had two levels of learning. They would firstly learn theory in a class or training provider and are assessed on that.
The second level is on the farm where the trainee is to keep a workbook and the farm employer had to verify that the trainee had completed that book.
‘‘We work with farmers to get a consistent approach on how they verify their trainees.’’
Jeffries said they also work very closely with the training providers.
‘‘The reputation of the organisation I run is very much in the hands of the training providers.
‘‘They need to be doing a high quality credible job so it reflects well on the funder, which is the ITO.’’
The organisation also used a quality assurance practise called AgExcel which saw them contact trainees, farmers and groups such as DairyNZ to ensure the training providers were delivering quality outcomes that met the needs of farmers, he said.
The organisation assessed the training provider and farmer to ensure there was a consistent approach to ensure the qualification given was assessed in the two learning levels.
‘‘Primary ITO moderates the outcomes of the training providers. We work with them, we check, we basically examine the examiners.’’
In the past, Primary ITO relied on farmers being the sole assessors. While those farmers still assess, Primary ITO people visit these farms, talk to the trainee and go through their work books and talk to the farmer.
‘‘There is a double check in place,’’ Jeffries said.
Industry partner groups from 15 different sectors had also been established in the past 18 months, which provided feedback to Primary ITO about what their employees were saying.
‘It’s a hugely accountable process and I think it’s a hugely important feedback loop and I look forward to spending time with the IPG’s as I get to learn the business.’’ DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Rick Pridmore says land use change is causing nitrogen loss.