The 2017-18 Annual VET Investment Plan Market Performance Review was announced in October 2017 and one of the industry areas and qualifications placed under review was the agricultural sector’s AHC32816 Certificate III in Rural Operations (including Certificate II). The Department of Employment, Small Business & Training (DESBT) tasked the Queensland Training Ombudsman to investigate whether these qualifications were delivering outcomes for students and industry commensurate with their level of public investment – $18.98m in 2016-17 (by way of subsidy). Submissions were invited from industry stakeholders to contribute to the investigation.
It was clear from the student/training provider data we accessed that there had indeed been a marked increase in student numbers and a rise in the level of public investment across the Rural Operations qualifications as a result. Our analysis of the data also showed a solid spread of training being delivered across all regions and a breakdown of the elective units of competency selected by students to be aligned with the requirements and expectations for outcomes sought by industry.
Industry is committed to building confidence in the VET system and the quality of training provided is of obviously of paramount concern. Throughout our consultations, we did not encounter any specific complaints about the qualifications or any evidence to indicate that there existed systemic issues, with either the qualification or the quality of training being delivered. With the assistance of the Queensland Agriculture Workforce Network (QAWN) field officers, comprehensive feedback was gathered from a variety of regions and employers from across a range of industry sectors on their experiences with the material covered by the courses, the training providers and the overall level of ‘job-readiness’ of qualified workers.
The Rural Operations qualification has evolved to provide a diverse range of options to acquire skills and knowledge to work in a regional setting, beyond just a specific farm operation context. This includes mixed farming and agribusiness operations, and also a blend of skills that extend to other rural and regionally-based enterprises such as landscaping, parks & gardens, agribusiness, local government, tourism, transport, construction and mining. With the future of work rapidly changing, training products need to support skilled workers for a broader range of jobs. Students benefit from training that includes more generic competencies that can be used across a wide range of occupations, delivering skills that service multiple roles. The training system must continue to support students to move more easily between related sectors and the Certificate III in Rural Operations qualification facilitates this with the incorporation of units of competency that are owned and used by a range of industry sectors. The Certificate II in Rural Operations, principally delivered via VETiS (VET in Schools), provides a solid platform and an important career pathway for school students.
In the long run, less well educated/less skilled workers will be particularly exposed to the effects of automation, emphasising the importance of increased investment in lifelong learning and retraining. Boosting education and skill levels helps people adjust to new technologies or methods of better practices. Less skilled workers will generally bear more of the costs of increased automation, so improving their adaptability and transferable skills is crucial to enable workers to more easily navigate disruptive or structural changes within or across industries over time.
Based on our assessments, we were of the opinion that the Rural Operations qualifications are delivering those outcomes desired by industry – namely, producing qualified students with a solid grounding in the essential skills relevant to living and working in a regional or rural environment that not only meet the initial expectations of employers, but which can be further developed and upskilled for their particular demands ‘on-the-job’. Our submission to the ombudsman reflected these findings.
The training ombudsman’s investigation has since closed and their report provided to DESBT. The Department’s preliminary recommendations are as follows:
- Continue to fund the Certificate III in Rural Operations and carefully monitor the impact of the recent changes implemented;
- Hold a forum with industry and all training providers for the Certificate III in Rural Operations to set clear expectations of outcomes expected from the delivery of this qualification;
- Conduct an independent survey of students who have undertaken the Certificate III in Rural Operations to ensure that the qualification has met their needs and expectations;
- Provide clear communication to stakeholders (at the forum suggested in recommendation 2) regarding the range of apprenticeships and traineeships available in the rural sector.
With regard to these preliminary recommendations the feedback that RJSA, on behalf of industry, has given to DESBT is that:
- We obviously support the continued funding and agree that careful monitoring of the impacts of those changes recently implemented by the Department is a sensible course;
- We support the holding of a forum with industry and all training providers in order to set clear expectations of the expected delivery outcomes for the qualification, and we further recommend that such a forum be facilitated by the Training Ombudsman;
- We support the proposed independent survey of students (and have made recommendations regarding question content); and that
- We support the stakeholder communication at the proposed forum regarding the range of apprenticeships and traineeships available in the rural sector.
As further developments are known, the RJSA will comment further.