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Kia ora tātou
It's been an extremely busy three months since our last newsletter. We were delighted to finally welcome everyone to the inaugural Research and Insights Forum in Wellington last week. A sell-out event, we made the call to video the project presentations, which are now available on the website.
You will find information on our new Board Chair and Members, updates on projects and events we have participated in, and if you missed our latest LinkedIn articles they are up on the website.
We trust you will find this edition jam-packed with informative and interesting content.
Ngā mihi
Paul Hollings, General Manager
FFCoVE Board Changes
Dr Mark Paine stepped down as Board Chair (and Member) at the AGM on 30 May, to give the incoming Chair, William Beetham from Beetham Pastural three full years to build momentum, drive implementation, and together with the management team, develop deeper industry engagement. This will ensure the next set of priorities for food and fibre skills development are a consequence of our work to date.
Natalie Bowie, National Manager, Sectors and Marketing at Primary ITO |Te Pūkenga was elected to the Board.
Turi Ngatai MNZM (Ngai Te Rangi/Ngāti Ranginui, Tauranga-Moana) and Sandy Scarrow were re-elected.
For more information, click here.
Research & Insights Forum
The Forum took place on Wednesday 31 May with presentations, an industry panel, and an audience participation session on the future of apprenticeships.
Key outtakes from participants included:
- The sense of kotahitanga. People have a real passion and drive to improve things in the food and fibre sector.
- Diverse voices and perspectives makes for robust and powerful discussions. We cannot underestimate the importance of intentional collaboration.
- Recognising the need to move from research to implementation of the various ideas, and for organisations to actively integrate findings into practice. Important to understand which initiatives are already in the market and where.
- People will increase in importance over the next decade. VET and FFCOVE's role to influence the sector is massive. The vocational education system is moving at pace and we need to ensure no one is left behind.
- The Tupu project demonstrated the importance of the interconnectivity of Iwi, learner, employer and training provider. Incorporating more kaupapa Māori is important.
- FFCoVE should not underestimate its role in bringing people and organisations together, who then connect with one another – we need more opportunities for collaboration.
And finally, a question for everyone to consider, “how do we reach beyond ourselves to those who wouldn't typically be in the room?”
Project presentations were recorded and are now available here.
We welcome your feedback. If you are interested in finding out more about a project, please email projects@foodandfibrecove.nz
Projects Update
Revamping apprenticeships: key questions for the future
We took the opportunity to have an interactive session at the Forum to seek participants' views on:
- Workforce Development Councils (WDCs) as custodians of apprenticeships and establishing apprenticeship standards.
- WDCs setting and moderating capstone assessments.
- Industry recognition for apprentice graduates being offered separately but aligned with NZCQF qualifications.
- Exploring development of a ‘core’ apprenticeship programme that develops and recognises cross-cutting and transferable skills.
- Demand for food and fibre apprenticeships, and demand for an apprenticeship model to support Māori, whānau, iwi aspirations, and Māori business.
- Provisions and processes to enable equitable access for ākonga Māori.
- Idea of a core food and fibre apprenticeship and its inclusions.
- Demand for higher level/advanced apprenticeships.
- The value to employers in taking on an apprentice.
Next steps will be shared, but in the interim, take a look at the discussion paper published earlier in the year.
Food and Fibre Vocational Excellence Rubrics
Further to what was presented at our recent Research and Insights Forum and the Work Integrated Learning NZ conference in April, we are interested to hear how you and your organisation are using the Vocational Excellence Rubrics or if you haven't used it, how you can see it potentially being implemented in your mahi. Drop us a line at projects@foodandfibrecove.nz
Hawke's Bay RSLG Actions
This project has now been completed. You will find further information, including: research on co-lab hubs, a pre-employment stocktake and key outputs over on our website.
Attraction & Retention
The Attraction and Retention Research Programme attracted much attention at our Research and Insights Forum.
It is moving into its third and final phase, which is changing scope from originally planned retention pilots to undertake further Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) analyses, and carry out more detailed surveys of employers to better understand why employees leave in their first year. The combined results will help identify best return on investment for future retention-related interventions.
The latest Situational Analysis, which includes IDI analysis and results of an employee exit survey can be accessed here, noting the interactive dashboards to the data sets are on page 3 of the report.
Degree Level Apprenticeships
As part of this change initiative, a strawman curricula for a Food and Fibre Degree Level Apprenticeship has been compiled by a learning designer, and is now with a panel of reviewers. Wider industry consultation will get underway in the coming months.
If you are interested in being part of the industry workstream, please contact Fiona Windle fwindle@foodandfibrecove.nz
Out and About
Meeting with Hon Jan Tinetti, Minister of Education
Early in May, Chair Mark Paine and Paul Hollings, GM together with ConCOVE Tūhura Board Co-Chairs Phil Hokianga and Graham Burke, and Executive Director Katherine Hall met with Hon Jan Tinetti, at Parliament.
It was an opportunity to share our programmes of work and our investment in action research. Key to developing a skilled workforce is collaboration between industry, the government and their agencies, training providers, and where appropriate, the CoVEs.
Horticulture and Agriculture Teachers Association (HATA) Conference
Napier April 2023
Being amongst passionate educators, and hearing from industry representatives talking about initiatives and resources to equip New Zealand teachers to inspire the next generation of food and fibre workers was a highlight for Fiona Windle, Portfolio Manager.
The critical role of attracting people to the food and fibre sector by horticulture, agriculture and agribusiness teachers was acknowledged by former Associate Minister of Agriculture, Hon Meka Whaitiri,
as were the multitude of opportunities available within the sector.
Fiona presented an overview of our work and highlighted the opportunities to work together to advance fit-for-purpose and innovative solutions for a thriving workforce.
Rural Leaders Agribusiness Summit
Christchurch March 2023
Lilla du Toit, Portfolio Manager attended the Summit in Christchurch. This thought-provoking event was a fantastic opportunity to hear from a stellar line-up of speakers including: Devry Boughner Vorvek on the importance of balancing sustainability and business, and Chris Parsons on what we should be doing to create better leaders.
With a focus on creating change, providing real solutions and exploring why leadership and innovation is critical to mitigating the challenges facing agribusiness, there was also time to connect and share ideas with global sector colleagues, including Theresa Whalen from Canada, who undertakes similar projects.
Work Integrated Learning New Zealand Conference
Christchurch April 2023
Fiona Windle, Portfolio Manager participated in the Work Integrated Learning NZ Inc Conference, and was impressed at how widely work integrated learning (WIL) research is embedded cross-disciplinary, and how the WIL network embraces and encourages it for the betterment of learners.
The breadth of the presentations enabled participants to take key learnings and apply them to their own work. Not only did it provide a platform to profile opportunities to work with FFCoVE and ConCOVE Tūhura and for Adam Baker, Scarlatti to share the Food and Fibre CoVE Excellence Framework, it was a great opportunity to make new connections for upcoming projects.
Our Stories
If you missed reading our latest LinkedIn articles, you will find them over on our website.
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