AgriFood Australia
Marketing facelift for VET - better outcomes from industry training: AgriFood Skills Australia
A major new national effort to reposition the image of Australia's national vocational education and training (VET) system - and to promote better outcomes from training - will be revealed this week at the National AgriFood Conference 2009 held at Sydney's Dockside Convention Centre (Thursday-Friday 24-25 September, starting at 8.30am).
The National AgriFood Conference, representing Australia's $208 billion agrifood industry and around 900,000 workers, will hear details of a two-year national communications project by federal, state and territory governments to improve the way VET is perceived by the Australian community.
AgriFood CEO Arthur Blewitt said AgriFood Skills Australia was advocating a flexible, responsive and high-quality vocational education and training system that could provide job-ready people with the capability to deliver to changing industry and market expectations.
The agrifood industry looked for better outcomes from the national training system and the availability of skilled and well trained workers was one impediment to the agrifood industry’s continued development and growth. These were crucial to run and operate increasingly sophisticated and innovative enterprises, whose success depended on competing globally and complying with the domestic and international regulation in doing this.
"Much of this training needs to be done on the job in cooperation with training organisations equipped with first-rate teachers who have the capacity to respond to changing industry requirements," Mr Blewitt said.
"This is a key challenge for training organisations: AgriFood’s focus is on working with training providers on the implementation and support of industry-driven training products that produce people equipped to do current and emerging jobs. "However, this depends on attracting and retaining capable workers to work and live in the regions, which is critical to the future growth and success of the agrifood industry, as the majority of its workforce is based in regional Australia."
AgriFood Skills Australia has initiated a Regional Jobs Summits to examine getting workers into regional communities (Narrabri Regional Jobs Summit in July and another planned for Emerald). The summits determine and address the skills and workforce needs and jobs of enterprises operating in these areas across Australia. A Regional Jobs Summit will feature at the National AgriFood Conference to examine in detail the issue of jobs in regional Australia.
"The Regional Jobs Summit in Narrabri identified key shortages of higher skilled workers to manage and operate at high technical levels, and the regions are losing their young people, who left high school to go and live in the cities," Mr Blewitt said.
"We need to identify and describe attractive jobs in a contemporary way and have access to quality training. We are working with the local communities, business and government to implement solutions to overcome shortages of the people and skills so essential to sustaining and growing enterprises."
"At the end of the day it’s about regional development and there are some very attractive inland cities out there, such as Narrabri, Orange and Toowoomba in NSW."
The agrifood industry continued to be a key export earner for Australia and recently had been one of the only industries – despite the global financial downturn – to continue to grow its exports and production. The conference was 'a signature event' in considering the new thinking, practice and case studies to underpin the industry’s continued innovation and growth for the future.
Brisbane based marketing and communications specialist, Allan Bonsall, said VET had never taken a clear form or carried positive values or even presented as a meaningful entity to Australians through communication channels. "While VET is understood to varying degrees by government, industry and the education sector it is not well understood by the public," Mr Bonsall said. "For most, it is an abstraction, a collective name for a large number of institutions that are not actually well understood."
The Australian Government, represented by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, has been working for two years with state and territory governments to improve the profile of VET with a view to increasing the flow of people into, and their retention in VET. It has the immediate policy aim of improving the way the vocational education and training ‘story’ is communicated to the Australian community and a consequent policy goal of increasing the flow of people into VET.National higher education specialists will discuss new directions being taken in VET and a panel of leaders from each of the five key industry groups will give an industry response to jobs and skills across all agrifood sectors. Former ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell will deliver the keynote address on the $70 billion food and grocery manufacturing sector - Australia's biggest manufacturing industry. Ms Carnell is CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.
AGRIFOOD SKILLS AUSTRALIA AgriFood Skills Australia is the national organisation responsible for skills and workforce capacity building for the agrifood industry. It is a public company with an industry board of directors, and a primary focus on improving industry performance through improved skills and workforce capability. The agrifood industry employs around 900,000 people and it generates about $208 billion a year to the national economy.
These industries - rural industries, food processing, mea seafood and racing -occupy two-thirds of the Australian land mass and feed 60 million people world-wide. For the conference web page go to: www.agrifoodskills.net.au
A major new national effort to reposition the image of Australia's national vocational education and training (VET) system - and to promote better outcomes from training - will be revealed this week at the National AgriFood Conference 2009 held at Sydney's Dockside Convention Centre (Thursday-Friday 24-25 September, starting at 8.30am).
The National AgriFood Conference, representing Australia's $208 billion agrifood industry and around 900,000 workers, will hear details of a two-year national communications project by federal, state and territory governments to improve the way VET is perceived by the Australian community.
AgriFood CEO Arthur Blewitt said AgriFood Skills Australia was advocating a flexible, responsive and high-quality vocational education and training system that could provide job-ready people with the capability to deliver to changing industry and market expectations.
The agrifood industry looked for better outcomes from the national training system and the availability of skilled and well trained workers was one impediment to the agrifood industry’s continued development and growth. These were crucial to run and operate increasingly sophisticated and innovative enterprises, whose success depended on competing globally and complying with the domestic and international regulation in doing this.
"Much of this training needs to be done on the job in cooperation with training organisations equipped with first-rate teachers who have the capacity to respond to changing industry requirements," Mr Blewitt said.
"This is a key challenge for training organisations: AgriFood’s focus is on working with training providers on the implementation and support of industry-driven training products that produce people equipped to do current and emerging jobs. "However, this depends on attracting and retaining capable workers to work and live in the regions, which is critical to the future growth and success of the agrifood industry, as the majority of its workforce is based in regional Australia."
AgriFood Skills Australia has initiated a Regional Jobs Summits to examine getting workers into regional communities (Narrabri Regional Jobs Summit in July and another planned for Emerald). The summits determine and address the skills and workforce needs and jobs of enterprises operating in these areas across Australia. A Regional Jobs Summit will feature at the National AgriFood Conference to examine in detail the issue of jobs in regional Australia.
"The Regional Jobs Summit in Narrabri identified key shortages of higher skilled workers to manage and operate at high technical levels, and the regions are losing their young people, who left high school to go and live in the cities," Mr Blewitt said.
"We need to identify and describe attractive jobs in a contemporary way and have access to quality training. We are working with the local communities, business and government to implement solutions to overcome shortages of the people and skills so essential to sustaining and growing enterprises."
"At the end of the day it’s about regional development and there are some very attractive inland cities out there, such as Narrabri, Orange and Toowoomba in NSW."
The agrifood industry continued to be a key export earner for Australia and recently had been one of the only industries – despite the global financial downturn – to continue to grow its exports and production. The conference was 'a signature event' in considering the new thinking, practice and case studies to underpin the industry’s continued innovation and growth for the future.
Brisbane based marketing and communications specialist, Allan Bonsall, said VET had never taken a clear form or carried positive values or even presented as a meaningful entity to Australians through communication channels. "While VET is understood to varying degrees by government, industry and the education sector it is not well understood by the public," Mr Bonsall said. "For most, it is an abstraction, a collective name for a large number of institutions that are not actually well understood."
The Australian Government, represented by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations, has been working for two years with state and territory governments to improve the profile of VET with a view to increasing the flow of people into, and their retention in VET. It has the immediate policy aim of improving the way the vocational education and training ‘story’ is communicated to the Australian community and a consequent policy goal of increasing the flow of people into VET.National higher education specialists will discuss new directions being taken in VET and a panel of leaders from each of the five key industry groups will give an industry response to jobs and skills across all agrifood sectors. Former ACT Chief Minister Kate Carnell will deliver the keynote address on the $70 billion food and grocery manufacturing sector - Australia's biggest manufacturing industry. Ms Carnell is CEO of the Australian Food and Grocery Council.
AGRIFOOD SKILLS AUSTRALIA AgriFood Skills Australia is the national organisation responsible for skills and workforce capacity building for the agrifood industry. It is a public company with an industry board of directors, and a primary focus on improving industry performance through improved skills and workforce capability. The agrifood industry employs around 900,000 people and it generates about $208 billion a year to the national economy.
These industries - rural industries, food processing, mea seafood and racing -occupy two-thirds of the Australian land mass and feed 60 million people world-wide. For the conference web page go to: www.agrifoodskills.net.au
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