A proposed Agribusiness subject at NCEA levels 2 and 3, which will be university entrance approved, is currently being trialled exclusively at St Paul’s Collegiate School and is on track to becoming available to all New Zealand secondary schools by 2017.
The drive for this new subject is as a result of the primary industries need for 80 percent more tertiary qualified graduates to sustain the future of New Zealand’s largest export industry.
DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb have estimated that 1200 graduates are required for the sector each year, but only 250 or so are coming out of New Zealand universities.
“St Paul’s, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb have collaborated to develop and deliver an Agribusiness programme to New Zealand secondary schools that meets the long term needs of the primary industries for highly skilled and motivated young people,” Peter Hampton, St Paul’s Collegiate School’s Deputy Headmaster and Director of Agribusiness said.
“This is a pioneering programme is of national significance. It will ensure a sustainable future of the primary industries, stimulate careers in agricultural science and business and encourage tertiary capable young people to proactivity select career pathways in the sector.”
The initiative couldn’t have come at a better time for the rural sector, which is struggling to attract skilled workers even though it lays claim to being New Zealand’s largest export industry.
“There is a critical demand for a highly-skilled agribusiness workforce – if New Zealand is to retain its global competitiveness,” said Michael Spaans, Director of DairyNZ.
“We need to develop our people capability; whether it’s in farming, or corporate farming, manufacturing or agribusiness – it doesn’t matter, as long as we’re capturing them in the industry.”
A pilot programme of Agribusiness started at St Paul’s in 2014 with 40 students taking part and 15 going on to study agribusiness at a tertiary level compared with two in the previous year. Now, in its second year, the pilot programme has doubled in numbers with 88 students seriously considering a career in the primary industries.
“I didn’t really think of agribusiness as a serious career option before. But now, after taking this subject, I know there are so many more opportunities out there in the ag sector and it’s made me reconsider my career choice,” Corban O’Connor-Harris, Year 13 at St Paul’s Collegiate School said.
Corban is taking classes for the new Agribusiness programme and is only one example of the positive change that this programme will make.
The issues behind the skills shortage starts in New Zealand secondary schools says Peter: “Little focus has been given to educating secondary school students about the career options that go beyond the farm gate.”
“We have an Agricultural and Horticultural Science subject that is educating students for farm-based roles, but we don’t have a subject that has a high-academic focus for students capable of becoming our future leaders.”
St Paul’s rich heritage of farming families was the catalyst behind the concept, with some of the school’s big farming families coming forward to support change in the school’s current curriculum.
St Paul’s approached farmers, industry leaders and tertiary institutes to develop an advisory group that would ensure the new subject met the needs of the industry while also complying with education standards.
A group of principal partners and business partners came on board to give sound advice on the course’s subject matter and to provide financial support to get the project off the ground.
DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ have joined to become principal partners of the industry-led initiative along with ten business partners: BNZ, LIC, Zoetis, NZ National Fieldays Society, AGMARDT, Greenlea Premier Meats, Waikato Milking Systems, AGrowQuip, Waitomo Petroleum and Campbell Tyson.
“In years 12 and 13, students will now learn about the opportunities available in primary industries that go beyond the farm gate through subject matter deemed important by the advisory group,” Peter said.
Students taking part in the course will learn from four key strands including agri-science, agri-innovation, agri-marketing and agri-finances and management.
This ground-breaking industry-led curriculum isn’t just for St Paul’s students, it’s a nationwide project.
“Obviously we want to create something good for our school and our students – but it’s bigger than that. Our school alone will never produce the sort of numbers the industry needs. To meet demand, it has to be rolled out across the country,” Peter said.
“If we can pull this off – and I am certain we will – it will be a real game changer for the primary industries.”
A nationwide rollout of the curriculum is planned for 2017 following approval from the Ministry of Education and NZQA. In preparation for this, seven lead schools have been selected by St Paul’s, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb to trial the curriculum and provide feedback in 2016.
“The feedback from these schools will guarantee we create a programme that will work within the secondary school environment.”
The schools are Southland Boys, Southland Girls, John McGlashan (Otago), Christchurch Boys, Feilding High, Lindisfarne (Hawke’s Bay) and Mt Albert (Auckland).
The construction of a purpose-built facility at St Paul’s will house training sessions for the seven lead schools and Agribusiness classes for St Paul’s students.
The Gallagher Agribusiness Centre of Excellence is planned to be completed in August this year thanks to the support of donors and naming rights partner the Gallagher Group. Support from the Gallagher Group – an iconic business name in the rural sector with a great reputation for developing high quality, innovative solutions – marks the significance of this initiative and this new building.
The state-of-the-art facility will boast two large classrooms that will allow virtual field trips and the use of cutting edge technology to digitally engage students. It will be an important community and sector resource that will be used by agricultural sector groups for meetings, professional development and promotional opportunities. It will also have a separate vehicle access through the school’s back gate off Casper Street.
The Gallagher Agribusiness Centre of Excellence will also be the venue for the national conference for New Zealand educators in mid-2016, which St Paul’s will host before the proposed nationwide roll-out the following year.
