arthur blewitt - agrifood skills australia - building highly skilled and robust regional futures –...

Our vision is a globally compe33ve and sustainable agrifood industry through world class enterprise capability and leadership

An independent company funded by government responsible for driving the na7onal skills and workforce

agenda across 5 key agrifood sectors.

Our services ● Opera7ng as a broker, facilitator and translator for partnerships across industry, government and training providers

● Driving industry driven competency standards for skills and job readiness

● Advising and suppor7ng industry sectors and enterprises on skills and workforce development

● Advocacy on na7onal policy change

Strategic Directions ● Building enterprise produc7vity and profitability

● Suppor7ng high quality delivery and assessment of skills

● Improving industry's image and career pathways

● Driving industry leadership and sound policy

Industry profile ● Agrifood industry highly important to Australia’s future

● accounts for around 825,000 jobs

● generates $230 billion pa

● capacity to produce food for 60 million people

● accounts for about 18% of Australia’s export earnings

● covers 60% Australia’s land mass

● 90% of enterprises are small

321Market factors

Policy environment

External influencers

ShiQing epi-‐centre of global consump7on

Resurgent western economies

Higher $AU dollar/ commodity vola7lity

Retail duopoly and shortening supply chains

High input cost produc7on – labour, energy, fuel, water and waste

Changing business models -‐ corpora7sa7on, alliances, contrac7ng

Empowered consumer – ‘value, values, health and indulgence’

Social media & social ac7vism

Independent cer7fica7on systems

Automa7on, technology, ICT, advanced robo7cs, gene7cs, remote

sensors, GPS

Expanding Asian middle class and consumerisa7on

Climate variability & climate change

Soil degrada7on, falling water tables

Urbanisa7on of world popula7on

Food security of world na7ons

Ageing agrifood workforce

Ageing Australian popula7on

iGenera7on

Globalisa7on of work

Hyper-‐connec7vity

Free Trade Agreements

Five-‐pillar economy

Red/ green regulatory burden

Animal welfare codes and guidelines

Biosecurity

Drought reform

Agricultural White Paper

Marine Protected Areas management plan review

‘Green Army’

State/ Territory Agrifood plans

Reduc7on in government RD&E

Student en7tlement and marke7sa7on

2012 Student profile ● 90,736 students enrolled (down 828

from 2011)*

● 28,068 students completed (up 3,967 from 2010)

● 63% of learners based outside of the major ci7es

● 80.4% of all agrifood students study part-‐7me

● 56% of learners defined in socio-‐economic terms as being in quin7les 1 and 2 (most disadvantaged)

● 54% of learners aged 25+

● 67% of learners are male

● 84% of delivery at Cer7ficate III or below

● 31.6% of learners are trainees or appren7ces

● Indigenous Australians comprise 8% of agrifood students

● All states decreased in enrolments except Victoria (1,539) and SA (+1,527)

* Appren&ce/ trainee numbers increased by 237 in the same period

Environmental Scan 2014 - Key findings ● A harsh, unforgiving business environment

• Increasing input and regulatory costs, no real liQ in returns, thinner margins

• Producers struggling to keep pace with the sophis7ca7on demanded of shortened supply chains (branding, innova7on, business exper7se and nego7a7on skills)

• Business models changing but few can match the pace of change in the external environment – changing customer tastes, technology/ automa7on adop7on, innova7on

• Within each company visited, remarkable poten&al … but business/ marke&ng and product development skills needed

Environmental Scan 2014 - Key findings continued…

● Asian market -‐ s7ll an intangible for most

• Changing market demand – from raw commodi7es to niche products

• More urgency for regulatory reform – reduc7on of red/green tape

• Market access and FTA – discussion needs to convert into commercial gain

• Resurrec7on of western economies – reduced gap between east and west growth rates

• Innova7ve businesses are focusing on niche or scale

Environmental Scan 2014 - Key findings continued…

● Flavour of the month

• Five pillar economy + state industry plans

• Inter-‐agency policy responses to support agrifood lacking across jurisdic7ons (government priori7es for agrifood need to be backed up by educa7on and training policy for industry)

• Growing tension between individual student en7tlement and building capability of key industries (macro-‐economic reform)

Six key priorities 1. Building world-‐class business management capability

2. Airac7ng a new genera7on of mo7vated, skilled and smart workers

3. Building higher level knowledge and skills within the exis7ng workforce

4. Increasing industry adop7on rates of new technologies and research outcomes

5. Opening up educa7on pathway – Schools ! VET ! HE ! VET

6. U7lising the skills of exis7ng workers and liQing reten7on rates.

Key themes - industry ● Tradi7onal processing plants struggling in Australia -‐ “transport is cheaper than labour”

● ShiQ from ‘commodity’ to ‘product’ with producers pushing to move up the value chain

● Biosecurity and animal welfare are paramount to future success and profitability of Australian agrifood

● ‘100% pure New Zealand’ … Australia needs equivalent branding to capture Australian producers’ values and aiributes

Key themes – industry continued…

● Rise of the individual consumer

• Increasing demand for evidence of a social ‘license to operate’

• Value, quality and convenience taken for granted

• Business use of social media and its opportuni7es to harvest data, lagging behind consumer adop7on and ‘connectedness’

Key themes – industry continued…

● Labour force

• Less noise about worker shortages, pressure point is exis7ng worker capability, par7cularly around managers/supervisors/technology

• Ongoing reliance on seasonal and casual workforce – demand calendars

• “Workforce development” and “skills” are now part of the conversa7on around capability, including enterprises developing their own ‘codes of prac7ce’ to liQ professionalism

• Opportuni7es to link business development capability to industry reform to build resilience and strategic capability eg. drought reform

Key themes – tertiary sector

● Ter7ary sector has a significant role to play … but only with the right policy sepngs

• But silo concept educa7on pathway changing – VET in Schools!VET!HE!VET knowledge transfer means the ter7ary sector needs to change to enhance its relevance to business

• Limited use of non-‐tradi7onal partnerships to create unique, high-‐value proposi7on to industry

• Lack of na7onal agreement on Skill Sets remains key policy constraint

• Poten7al labour pathways into industry not being op7mised – migrant refugees, resource sector workers, cross-‐industry workers

Issues relevant to AgriFood 1. Increasing demand for brokering rela3onships,

partnerships and informa3on flow between stakeholders

• Non-‐tradi7onal partnerships – oil & gas + seafood

• Non-‐tradi7onal alliances – Collabora7ve RTOs + industry bodies = driving industry wide capability on key issues, for example, business management

• Non-‐tradi7onal pathways into industry – Bridging qualifica7ons into the industry for specific groups: resource sector workers, indigenous Australians, migrants/ refugees

Issues relevant to AgriFood continued…

2. ‘Employer of choice’ prac7ces

3. Resolving seasonal worker induc3on challenge – digital record for seasonal workforce, cross-‐industry workers, contractors

4. Thought leadership on linking industry reform to building capability (skills) … leverage off drought reform approach


5. Opportuni7es for integrated qualifica3ons with universi7es and short programs to support technicians/ para-‐professionals and increased demand for business management capability

7. Na7onal need for partnerships with industry bodies and associa7ons to: • Build their understanding of workforce planning/ skills policy and

applica7on

• Develop resources and prac7cal advice for their members

• Work with AgriFood to extend reach and stakeholder input


7. Brokering partnerships between CRC/ RDCs and CSIRO, and the VET sector to drive greater flow of research outcomes into the student cohort (webinars, development of resources, guest lecturing, site visits)


Required research

8. Analysis of the changing business models and structures across the agrifood supply chain and implica7ons for work organisa7on, workforce composi7on and job roles;

9. Development of a na7onal brand strategy for promo7on of agrifood job roles that establishes agreed set of messages and value proposi7ons for use across agrifood sectors (co-‐branded with industry bodies);


10. Development and valida7on of a contemporary, flexible employment based training *model that would be airac7ve to both agrifood employers and poten7al employees in a wide range of sectors, including its aiributes, likely job roles and cri7cal success factors;

* ‘Employment based training’ is the term used to describe the scenario where an employee undergoes on and off-‐the-‐job training under a formal agreement


11. Scoping study of AgriFood's current knowledge transfer model including formal learning and widespread non-‐formal and informal/social learning synonymous with agrifood. Includes: I. iden7fying the bodies involved in providing each type of learning

experience and their roles; II. Iden7fying opportuni7es that exist for collabora7on and

leverage; III. Analysing current policy direc7ves and economic drivers with

implica7ons for workforce planning and skills development and how the exis7ng model needs to respond in support.

AgriFood National Regional Initiatives (ANRI) ● Based on a cross-‐industry trial conducted in north west NSW

● Independently assessed 3.2% labour produc7vity improvement 33% net reduc7on outward migra7on

● Involved partnership with key stakeholders in industry, enterprises, RTOs, governments, research agencies, regional communi7es and universi7es

● The successful aspects of that trial are the founda7on of the industry and community-‐driven strategy

Food in the Australian Curriculum Funded under the Na7onal Food Plan through the Department of Agriculture – Focus on city-‐based primary and secondary students to agrifood industries and economic significance.

Aim:

To enhance the teaching and learning of the agrifood industries in Australian schools, par7cularly in science, history, geography and technology

Food in the Australian Curriculum continued…

The Deliverables:

● Na7onal presence

● Presenta7ons to 8000 students na7onally in years 4 to 7

● Teacher professional development workshops to 800 teachers and 500 trainee teachers

● Development of teaching materials to support classroom learning

● U7lise RDC websites and educa7on materials

● Independent evalua7on

“Agribusiness has such a bright future in Australia, if it can unite and rise to the challenge. Right now, perhaps that’s

where the challenge truly lies.”

Phillip M Napier Sector Leader, Agribusiness, KPMG

arthur blewitt - agrifood skills australia - building highly skilled and robust regional futures –...

Business

key priorities

key findings aharsh

environmental scan

technology automa7onadop7on

student profile

remote sensors

services opera7ngasabroker