'Testing the waters': How moving uni year could help Hawke's Bay growers

Unpicked apples on an orchard in Hastings this year. Photo / Warren Buckland

A Hawke's Bay MP is "testing the waters" around an idea to move the academic year forward for universities and even institutes of technology to help address staff shortages on orchards and vineyards.

Napier Labour MP and Tourism Minister Stuart Nash said he had been thinking about the idea for a while, and voiced it publicly for the first time during an interview in Nelson last week.

Universities as well as many polytechs and institutes of technology traditionally run their academic year from February through to October.

Nash said reshuffling the academic year, to begin around late March/early April then finish in December, would free students up to work at a crucial time.

That includes boosting the horticulture, viticulture and tourism industries in February and March.

"It is certainly not Government policy or Labour Party policy at this stage, but we were looking at ways to fill some of these labour shortages," Nash said.

"Students have a reputation by and large of being really good workers... if we can better align the university year with the horticulture and tourism and viticulture year, then there is a potential to fill some of these worker shortages which people are finding it difficult to fill," he said.

"[February and March are] right at a time when the tourism sector is still going hard and when we need people in our orchards and vineyards."

The apple and grape picking season traditionally runs from February to April each year.

Napier MP Stuart Nash voiced the idea publicly this month. Photo / NZME

Hawke's Bay has a huge viticulture and horticulture industry including growing the most apples by far of any region in the country.

Apple growers suffered through another tough picking season this year, mainly due to a lack of pickers, with one forecast estimating a lose of around $105 million in export earnings.

Nash said he was open to receiving feedback on the idea.

"If people do come and say 'there is some merit to this, let's explore this a little further', I will talk to the Education Minister and see if there is any appetite there."

He said at this stage it was simply about "testing the waters" and any potential policy was a long way off.

Eastern Institute of Technology (EIT) chief executive Chris Collins said this concept was something they had already considered at length.

"EIT has several programmes in our School of Primary Industries and School of Viticulture and Wine Science that have altered their academic years to align with seasonal workforce demands within their respective sectors," Collins said.

"However, we also have to align closely with the compulsory school sector year as we have a large number of mature learners with dependents in school and our timetable needs to allow them to study with minimal family disruption," he said.

"We've found we have had little success in previous campaigns to recruit EIT students into part-time or short-term work in the horticultural sector. Students often wish to continue with their existing part-time work."