Tertiary Education Bill Fails The Agricultural Sector

Federated Farmers believes tertiary education providers have failed to recognise the importance of agriculture to the economy and have failed to respond to the sectors' needs.

In a verbal submission on the Draft Tertiary Education Strategy today, Federated Farmers National Board member Colin Bull said that the Government should amend the way it allocates funding to Industry Training Organisations (ITOs) for the provision of training for employees and the self employed.

"The self employed contribute to the ITOs through levies collected by Producer Boards yet ITOs are restricted to using funds supplied by Government for employees only. This limit on Government funds ignores 75% of the farming work force that are self-employed including sharemilkers.

"The Tertiary Education Strategy outlined the importance of stakeholder involvement in determining skills and knowledge shortfalls but the Bill fails to meet this objective. Federated Farmers recommends that the select committee changes the definition of stakeholder in the Bill to ensure it includes employers and businesses and their representative organisations.

"New Zealand's future prosperity will continue to be highly dependent on the success of agriculture. It is crucial that the tertiary sector is responsive to the sector's needs.

ENDS

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