what does the closure of Queensland Agriculture Colleges mean for our industry?
opinion piece by samantha noon - queensland based media stringer
In rural areas, the right of passage to working in the agricultural industry was once to leave home and take up refuge in the local agricultural college. Opportunities of this nature are virtually non-existent now in Queensland due to the recent closures of the Agricultural Colleges by the Queensland Government last year. It was at these Ag colleges where kids who didn’t find want to undertake an apprenticeship in their home town or head off to the bright lights of University to complete a degree, could find their place in the world and dually gain a qualification ‘to fall back on’. Some of our industry’s best environmental managers, food producers and strategic thinkers are graduates of the Ag college system. It was the perfect ecosystem for churning out the future of the Queensland Agriculture industry, and securing our industry’s succession plan in the process.
The ag colleges provided practical and theoretical training that was immediately applicable to working in the agricultural industry, in a range of fields
Now I beg the question – if you wanted to study agriculture and work in the industry, where do you go? I can see the virtual hands waggling in the air from all the training organisations claiming, “we have a program for that!” But… do they really?
I have been studying the effectiveness of the Vocation Education system in rural areas for nearly three years now, and let me tell you – it is hard to get quality accredited training delivered face to face west of the ‘Great Divide’. Training organisations which are paid by our Government to deliver training are either not willing or able to travel to the heartland of Australian agriculture because for many, “its not viable”.
Simple ticking of a box deeming one ‘competent’ is not learning. Face to face, learning the tricks of the trade on the job, is learning. Today’s workplace learning often involves a program written by someone with little connection to the industry, and delivered by a trainer who is a professional trainer, not a professional within the Ag industry. Therein lies the issue of the industry’s workforce dilemma.
I talk to a lot of people about this, all the time. The message I’m receiving is coming through loud and clear; it is really hard to find expert, quality trainers and I think I know what the problem is…
Working in agriculture at the ground level can be quite autonomous, and those working within the industry often tend not to naturally lean towards extroverted personality traits of the typical workplace trainer. For example, livestock people tend to work in the industry because they enjoy working with livestock or driving machinery or being on the water run and they don’t necessarily want to be in a role that requires extensive, out the front communication. This is consistent with many other areas within Australian agricultural industries - it’s not necessarily the case for everyone, but it certainly is true for many industry participants. This is why it’s often impossible to find quality, industry experienced trainers who have the ability to connect with their constituents.
Accredited training where you are awarded a “Certificate IV in Agriculture” or something similar is increasingly becoming attractive in agricultural industries – particularly in those where staff turnover is high and they tend to stay within the industry but swap employers a lot; feedlots are a good example of this. As an industry, we need to make the opportunity to gain these qualifications in an accessible way. Government, decision makers and training organisations need to listen to industry, and deliver what is needed via a platform that is suitable for the cohort…
…and not just be in for the money or a piece of paper.