As part of our skills reporting for 2022, Skills Impact has brought together the insights of 12 Industry Reference Committees to produce an Agribusiness, Food and Fibre Industries Skills Report. The first of its kind, the report identifies common themes impacting industry sectors across food, fibre and agribusiness.
Nine individual Industry Skills Reports have also been produced to present insights specific to each industry.
Together, these reports identify trends and skills priorities to provide advice and information to government. They highlight potential projects for the future Agribusiness, Food and Fibre Industry Cluster to consider, moving into 2023, as part of the reinvigorated VET system.
Each of the reports were made available for public feedback on the Skills Impact website earlier this year. They have been updated to consider all comments and the final versions can be viewed by following the links below.
Individual reports:
Common skill themes and priorities
Following are excerpts from the Agribusiness, Food and Fibre Industries Skills Report.
Skills across the value chain and the role of risk
A complex value chain connects the Agribusiness, Food and Fibre Industries. A whole-of-value-chain approach is essential for understanding how industries work together and implementing robust and adaptable systems now and into the future. There needs to be broader recognition of the risk profile across this value chain and the role of risk management as a defining characteristic of the skills used in these industries.
Addressing skills in regional, rural and remote Australia
Approaches to address skilling issues suitable for cities rarely succeed in thin training markets in regional, rural and remote areas, where there are widely dispersed populations with varying skill levels. Recognition of the need to manage employment and skills development in Agribusiness, Food and Fibre and the unique challenges faced in regional, rural and remote areas are critical success factors in implementing solutions.
The importance of traceability
Traceability is critical for national and international consumer markets, compliance, safety and welfare, licensing, environmental impact tracking and prevention of fraud. Developing the skills and knowledge required to understand and operate relevant technology may ensure that the broad needs of the industry are met. There may be a need for innovative development across multiple training packages.
Streamlining issues
Despite there being similar skills, the variety of standards and knowledge required to work with individual plant and animal species makes it difficult to simplify and streamline training products in their current configuration and format. Industry stakeholders have emphasised the importance of training package content being designed to enable contextualisation to address this issue.