Muka Tangata is looking to remove duplication and simplify the courses. (file image) Photo: Supplied
A complete overhaul of food and fibre qualifications is underway - with the hope courses will be simplified.
Muka Tangata's People Food and Fibre Workforce Development Council is reviewing all agricultural qualifications, outside of university, including level 2 and 3 courses which are done at high school.
Chief executive Jeremy Baker said the number of people studying food and fibre had been declining over the past two decades so it was time to refresh the qualifications.
"When we think about the qualifications themselves, it's become pretty clear to us that they're overly complicated and they don't actually recognise the reality of the workforce that we have these days, which is incredibly mobile.
"The average worker in the food and fibre sector actually only stays in a job for about nine months and then moves, generally into another job in the sector, but the current training programmes assume someone's going to be in a job for three to four years."
The sector needed qualifications which would enable people to take their learning with them as they moved between jobs and between industries, Baker said.
"And so that's why we're looking at all of those qualifications together so that we can try and find commonalities and simplify things."
Duplication between courses would be removed.
"Everything at the moment is a bit complex, we'd like to have a New Zealand Certificate in Food and Fibre with different strands; so a strand in forestry, dairy or sheep and beef et cetera," Baker said.
Muka Tanagata will work with industry partners over the next year to ensure the new qualifications are fit for purpose.
Once the review is complete, the new qualifications have to be approved by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.
