Industry training adds Value

Measuring what matters shows industry training adds value

The value that industry training returns to industry is overlooked in an analysis done by the Ministry of Education on completion rates for Modern Apprenticeships, according to the Agriculture Industry Training Organisation (Agriculture ITO).

The analysis measures completion rates of Modern Apprenticeship programmes, based on data from the Tertiary Education Commission. But completion doesn’t tell the story of where the value of training lies, says Agriculture ITO’s chief executive Kevin Bryant.

“Our research shows our training returns over 340% of what it costs – including fees, levies, funding and time off work. That’s across all our training, regardless of whether people finish their programmes or not.

“It’s important to remember that even though learners might not complete programmes, they are still collecting learning, and bringing that to their workplace. The industry recognises that, and our new ‘can-do’ qualifications which package learning in bite-size chunks, not three or four year programmes, are designed to recognise that as well.”

Agriculture ITO sets qualification standards and arranges training for people in the dairy, sheep, cattle, poultry, pork and arable farming industries, among others. It also manages training for the water treatment and supply industry.

“The analysis by the ministry highlighted both industry and previous qualifications as factors in Modern Apprenticeship completion,” Mr Bryant said. “That’s quite true. Formal qualification structures are relatively new to agricultural workplaces, while many young people coming to agriculture from school have no qualifications at all.

“What agriculture industry employers want are people who can do the job – and that’s what we’ve been working with our industry partners to deliver: can-do people.”

Completion figures are also affected by the fact that the industry norm – particularly in dairying – has been for people to move on to a new job after one or two seasons. Each time a person enrolled in industry training changes employer, their training agreement is ended. This is then measured as a termination, not a completion – thus affecting completion rate measurements. Dairying seasons don’t coincide with calendar years, so a nominal one year programme would register as taking two years to complete.

“There are undoubted improvements to be made to the Modern Apprenticeship programmes,” Mr Bryant said. “And we’re making them. It’s an area of focus for us and our industry partners. Shorter, task-focused qualifications that can be completed within a season and an emphasis on workplace assessment will make a big difference to completions. We’re seeing that already.”

The ministry’s data is from 2001 to 2006 The Modern Apprenticeship scheme was launched in 2000. Agriculture ITO is rolling out new qualifications and learning support resources developed since its own review and research in 2007-08.

“Having the appropriate learning resources available for learners even if they move jobs, regions, islands, has been another major project we’ve partnered with our industries and training providers on.

“We recognise that completion is a valid measure of training uptake. What’s less clear is how well it measures what really matters – the application of learning. We have to keep in perspective that effective industry training is about best-practice learning being used on the job.

“We’re working very closely with our industry partners to ensure that this is what happens. Improved completions will be one of those measures, but not the only one.”

ENDS

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