The changes followed a difficult two years for primary sector training providers in which a number closed but that came with the realisation training was essential to meet the Government’s goal of doubling the value of primary sectors exports by 2025, chief executive Dr Linda Sissons said.
Since taking on the role last July Sissons has moved to ensure PrimaryITO was relevant, nimble and played its part in efforts to meet those growth targets while also finding ways to make training easier.
Last year companies providing training for 1000 people collapsed or closed but the subsequent goodwill and determination from primary sector groups gave Sissons confidence the training gap would be filled.
“I think we will because the industry is so committed.”
The changes were also driven by the reality the industry needed staff with greater skills than previously to meet compliance and to use new technology.
“It’s not been an anti-qualification but who-needs-it attitude to qualifications,” she said.
Sissons said the demands of the industry were changing and PrimaryITO’s response was to focus on what she called the three Ps – pathways, partnerships and production.
The aim was to provide and promote a pathway for primary industry careers that were diverse and stimulating while also providing a lifestyle.
Addressing training needs meant partnering with industry and other providers like polytechnics and Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, while there was a proven link between improved farm productivity and trained staff.
“We have got a need for more qualified and smart workers so we need to see the primary industry as a positive career choice and at the same time address the changing shape of the workforce.”
An initiative with Taratahi and the Manukau Institute of Technology was the launch of Primary Auckland, a programme to encourage school leavers into primary industry careers.
Sissons said a South Auckland principal told her 5% of school leavers went to work in the primary sector, a figure that was low given the area’s proximity to land-based industries.
Primary ITO had employed Anne Haira to encourage more Maori to pursue primary sector careers and to take advantage of iwi-owned farms.
A number of training providers that collapsed in recent years were set up by growers or farmers but struggled with the bureaucracy, rules and regulations, Sissons said.
PrimaryITO proposed working with providers so they delivered training but left the administration to the ITO.
“This is not an easy industry,” she said of education.
“We are the people who understand the rules of Government.”
Another change was to allow trainees more time to complete courses by doing them in bite-size pieces.
Surveys showed courses were not completed because trainees got distracted at busy times of the year such as lambing or calving.
“We are developing a concept of having little pieces of learning join together, a bit like Lego.”
PrimaryITO wanted to recognise previous learning such as on-the-job training and attending discussion groups or more formally through a training provider.
“Through this way we can fast-track that learning,” she said.
That reduced the risk to trainees and provided a pathway to advancing careers.
Primary sector training had broadened to include vertically integrated supply chains and as part of that she was recruiting four sector managers – meat and fibre, dairy, horticulture and viticulture and emerging industries – to ensure those training needs were met.
One part of the business that would not change was the network of training providers.
“The feedback is that those training providers on the ground are worth their weight in gold.”
Sissons was previously the deputy chief executive of The Open Polytechnic and for 15 years the chief executive of Wellington Institute of Technology.
She was introduced to agriculture when she was acting chief executive of Taratahi and after a brief secondment to Massey University to lead a project developing its agriculture portfolio was appointed to head the PrimaryITO role.
Her time at Taratahi was described as “an immersion course” in agriculture.
“I can’t escape it now.”
