Developing the Skills of Māori Farm Employees in Te Tai Tokerau
Status
Completed: 9 October 2012
Project Details
A project, completed in 2012, to assess the workplace literacy (WPL) skills of Māori farm employees from five isolated pastoral farms in Northland. The project was undertaken by Venture Group Ltd, in collaboration with the Agriculture ITO (AgITO); and with encouragement and some input from the Te Tai Tokerau office of Te Puni Kokiri (TPK) and the Retirement Commission.
Aims:
The research aims were to:
- investigate the workplace literacy skill levels and training needs of Māori farm employees on five rurally isolated farms
- explore practicable options for the delivery of training to meet those needs
- assess the effectiveness of two new self-assessment tools, purpose-designed to identify the financial and digital literacy skills training needs of modern agriculture employees.
Methodology:
The project used an action research methodology including:
- a literature review covering language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) training for adults, LLN pedagogy, and LLN delivery to Māori learners
- workplace literacy assessment tools – literacy and numeracy assessment and self-assessment, financial literacy self-assessment and digital literacy self-assessment.
Team
Tricia Cutforth
Project leader
Venture Group Ltd
Neil Shaw
Venture Group Ltd
Gill Minogue
Venture Group Ltd
Jill Hartles
Venture Group LtdStatus
Funding
$10,000.00 (excl GST)
Key Findings
The key findings from the project were:
- For the wider agriculture industry and Māori pastoral sector in particular, this research confirms that the literacy skill levels, broadly defined, of Māori farm employees in Te Tai Tokerau are below the levels required for them to progress higher-level careers within the agriculture industry.
- For pastoral farm owners and farm managers, the report found WPL training for Māori farm staff to increase the effectiveness of communication; and to improve their allocation of time and resource to specific farm tasks and processes, can be expected to significantly lift farm productivity.
- For Māori farm employees wanting WPL training, the research highlighted the difficulties associated with delivering training to Māori farm employees working on dispersed pastoral farms in isolated rural areas.
- For AgITO, the research identified some specific barriers for AgITO trainee progression from Level 2-3 to Level 4 AgITO qualifications. This was discovered through discussions with Māori trainees who were currently signed up for Level 3 qualifications and with older Māori farm employees who had dropped out of AgITO Level 4 training.
Key Recommendations
The project identified three main challenges related to skills development for Māori farm employee in Te Tai Tokerau that need to be addressed:
WPL delivery options | The identification of WPL delivery options which bypass the current barriers around access and cost in relation to Māori farm employees in isolated rural areas, so that they can lift their WPL skill levels to the level required by their current work roles.
LLN subject content | The fine-tuning of the literacy and numeracy subject content and skill level requirements across the suite of AgITO and other agriculture industry qualifications to support WPL skills development and progression between qualifications.
Individualised WPL training | Individualised WPL training for Māori farm employees across all levels of AgITO training, to equip them to: enhance their security of tenure in their farm jobs, lift their qualification enrolment and completion rates, improve their pastoral career and promotion opportunities, and contribute at a higher skill level towards lifting productivity on Māori-owned farms.
A research report prepared by Neil Shaw, Gill Minogue and Jill Hartles.
(PDF, 1.28 MB,71-pages).
- 21 October 2012