The qualification has been changed to meet the needs of industry:

• There has been a small title change to differentiate this qualification from Urban Pest management.
• Packaging rules have been altered to provide clear separation between General pest controller, Vertebrate Pest controller and Weed Pest controller by the inclusion of streams.
• Further flexibility has been provided by the addition of one extra unit and the ability to import units at level 3 or 4 from other training packages.
• Changes have been made to core to reflect a more accurate base set of skills common to all pest controllers.
• Some level 2 units of competency have been removed, where they are no longer relevant or where level 3 units are more appropriate for this qualification.
• The qualification purpose remains the same but due to the change in the core, the qualification will not be deemed equivalent to preceding qualifications.

AHC33616 Certificate III in Rural Pest Management

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AHCPMG3XX Apply poison baits for vertebrate pest control in rural and environmental landscapes

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 AHCPMG3XX Apply poison baits for rural and environmental pest animal control was developed after industry recognised a skills gap in the use of baits for Vertebrate pests and in particular wild dogs, but inclusive of other baiting programs used throughout Australia. The new unit has been developed to focus on industry best practice of using poisons and poison baits particularly those relating to S7 poisons. The use of canid poison ejectors is also part of this unit in order to bring the pest control industry up to speed with this type of specialised poison baiting technique and minimising bait drift and off target risks. The unit is relevant to all vertebrate pest controllers and local and state government pest control staff, without exception, as the methods are a foundation to their job role. As such, it has become a core specialisation elective unit for the vertebrate pest controller specialisation within the qualification.Greg Mifsud, National Wild Dog Management Coordinator, provided feedback from the National Wild Dog Management Group and states the following:"There is a requirement around the use of vertebrate pesticides. As discussed in Sydney at the first workshop, there is a real gap and hope to properly design and implement baiting programs not just for dogs but also foxes, pigs and to a lesser extent, rabbits. If we want to train professional pest animal controllers or even local or state government staff, then some training on best practice use of 1080, canid pest ejectors and pindone for rabbits would be very useful. The current chemical competencies do not relate to using vertebrate pesticides at all and only cover off on transport handling and storage regulations. Everything else relates to spraying herbicide which is just not relevant to baiting for vertebrate pests. We could develop a unit that has strategies and best practice methods to develop and implement baiting programs across a range of species that would be very useful and meets the requirements of various state agencies for vertebrate pest controllers and also landholders to access baits from S7 retailers. At present a landholder has to sit through 2 days of boom spray calibration to avoid spray drift just to get an accreditation that allows them to go and pick up 24 baits from the produce store. So there is a real opportunity now to get it right."This has been adopted and with working with Greg and other members of the group the unit of competency was been created and made available for industry consultation (between 26 February – 12 March 2018) and validation (between 28 March - 11 April 2018).

Note: Certificate III in Rural Pest Management has been updated to Certificate III in Rural and Environmental Pest Management to reflect industry feedback and to make a clearer delineation between the Certificate III in Urban Pest Management and this qualification.

AHC3XXXX Certificate III in Rural and Environmental Pest Management

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 Note: The following work has been carried out on this qualification:The packaging rules have been updated from 12 to 14 units, which has seen the core increase from 3 to 6 units. This was carried out after consultation with subject matter experts about which core functions an individual must know to be deemed competent as a Rural and Environmental Pest Manager.The elective units have been reduced from 9 to 8 and specialisations added to cover those who want to specialise as a Rural and Environmental Pest Management (Weed Controller) and Rural and Environmental Pest Management (Pest animal controller).A new unit has been added into the core electives for vertebrate pests covering applying poison baits for rural and environmental pest animal control.The addition of a unit AHCWRK309 Apply environmentally sustainable work practices has been recommended for council employed staff who use this unit for weed control into the General Electives.

The unit has been updated to reflect the Standards for Training Package 2012. There has been minor changes to the Performance Criteria, additions to the Foundation Skills and clarification to the Performance Evidence and Knowledge Evidence components. More detail has also been provided in the Assessment Conditions. The unit is deemed Equivalent

AHCFAU201 Recognise fauna

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