Jane Weatherley and Amabel Fulton

Tasmanian Institute of Agricultural Research, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-54, Hobart, TAS 7001.
Email: Jane.Weatherley@utas.edu.au

Introduction

The dairy industry’s potential for further development and international competitiveness hinges on the education and skill of its workforce. Development, coordination and accreditation of programs offered by a range of providers would ensure efficient use of resources and expertise and optimal outcomes for industry.

This project used the Tasmanian dairy industry education and training system as a case study to identify and develop a process to create an industry/education partnership to coordinate education and training. This process has application across all agricultural industries and can be instigated by any stakeholder involved in the provision of education and training. The primary objective of this poster is to demonstrate how industry/education partnerships can be developed to coordinate education and training, using the Tasmanian dairy industry as an example. In particular, the poster will demonstrate:

How coordination of education and training can be achieved:

• Benefits to a coordinated approach for education and training
• Barriers to a coordinated approach for education and training

The Poster

The poster will provide an overview of the process that the project used to gain stakeholder interest and create an awareness to the opportunities available for further developing the current education and training system.

The stakeholders involved in the provision of education and training were identified and involved with all activities conducted for this project. To identify the current provision of education and training and also the current education and training needs of all target audiences within the dairy industry, an e-mail survey was sent to all stakeholders. Information was collated and then presented at a workshop, which all stakeholders were invited to attend.

The workshop was used to ensure that all of the major education and training were identified from the survey. The strengths, weaknesses and opportunities of the current education and training system for the Tasmanian dairy industry were then established, with participants comments recorded on butchers paper. The education and training needs that were identified in the survey were then discussed, and participants were asked to prioritise each need, so that the most important needs for addressing at present were identified.

Once these aspects had been established, participants identified if there was any existing coordination of education and training in the dairy industry between stakeholders, and how further coordination could be achieved for the Tasmanian dairy industry.

Comparing the key criteria for effective industry education partnerships with the results of the dairy industry education survey and workshop, it was concluded that the Tasmanian dairy industry would significantly benefit from developing an industry/education partnership to coordinate education and training. The Tasmanian dairy industry perceive that the future of dairy education and training lies within an effective coordination process, and the project concluded with recommendations for stakeholders to develop an effective coordination process.