Far North growers to benefit from fruit production training

A new fruit production training programme promises to make it easier for Northland employees and businesses to get the skills they need.

New fruit production training from Primary ITO | Te Pūkenga is designed to make it easier for Northland employees and businesses to get the skills they need.

The updated New Zealand Certificate in Fruit Production Level 3 offers on-the-job training, with options designed to help people get the training best suited to their region and business.

In Northland, new learners will join the 60 other people learning on the job, across the region’s most widely planted crops like avocados, kiwifruit and citrus at 56 orchards and other growers.

Fruit production is worth tens of millions of dollars a year to Northland, with the region’s kiwifruit industry worth about $76m a year.

Hamish Gordon, Primary ITO sector manager for horticulture production, said the new programme makes it easier to focus on the particular skills needed for each region and business.

“For example, where frost protection is very important in the South Island, it’s much less the focus in the Far North,” Gordon said.

He said while there are new training options for things like pruning younger or mature trees, frost protection and how to interpret weather maps, the key principles set people up for a career in fruit production.

“It’s very broad and does fit into a lot of systems, whether that’s blueberries, kiwifruit on vines, or tree fruit.”

Gordon said the industry needs to focus on upskilling people as it can’t rely on being able to employ people already fully skilled.

“It’s an ageing industry, with managers and directors in their 60s and we need more skilled people coming through to fill those managerial positions. Even when people are trained, they’re not necessarily choosing to step up into management so investing in training is critical.”

The new Level 3 New Zealand Certificate is available now and a new Level 4 certificate was launched earlier this year. They can be combined into a New Zealand Apprenticeship. It’s in the Level 4 course that people will learn management skills, he said.

“It involves a lot of critical thinking about why you do things within a production system, as well as how to supervise and talk to your team.”

For more information, visit the Programmes page on primaryito.ac.nz.