The Certificate in Wool Technology would be introduced by the Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre early next year.
“We’re making progress after some frustrations,” Wool Industry Education Group convenor Allan Frazer said.
About 57 people had indicated they were keen to start study.
They were not all expected to formally enrol but Frazer was happy with the number, saying it indicated a catch-up phase after the previous certificate programme ended when Tectra collapsed in 2015.
Lincoln University and Telford took over the course briefly before Lincoln pulled out and it was shut down.
Frazer had been leading industry efforts since then to have it re-established.
The certificate was a requirement for qualification as a wool classer.
Once the backlog of prospective students was put into the course there will be about 25 people a year keen to do it, he said.
The certificate would be a two-year course, mainly extramural. There would be a week-long block course in each year of the programme.
A course programme had been worked out and Taratahi wool tutor Laurie Boniface was consulting industry experts before finalising the content, Frazer said.
The first-year paper would cover the wool value chain and the second year would cover wool classification.
Enrolment forms were scheduled to be sent out later this month or in early December.
People showing interest in the new course were likely to come from the wool handling sector in the shearing sheds and wool stores, farm workers with an interest in wool and people working in scours and for merchants and brokers, Frazer said.
His group was also keen to restart a diploma study programme, a more concentrated qualification used in the past as a stepping-stone to industry leadership.
That programme, formerly offered at Massey University, lapsed several years ago and though progress was being made it could be another year before a replacement was brought in.
Frazer said Taratahi had also agreed in principle to the formation of a Wool Industry Advisory Group to liaise between the groups.
That would involve equal membership from industry and Taratahi and provide oversight of the certificate course, as well as working towards the diploma reinstatement.
