EIT’s extensive suite of primary industry qualifications is spurring enrolments by students keen to be part of the upswing in the horticulture, agriculture and forestry sectors.

Assistant head of school for primary industries Jenna Mullooly says student and industry feedback on EIT’s new assessment method centred on project-based learning has also been positive.

Moving from unit standards to achievement-based assessment, the programmes have been designed with industry input to meet employers’ needs for real-life skills.

Attuned to the growing demand for industry-ready entrants, EIT added forestry to the 2017 offerings available to secondary school students through the Hawke’s Bay Schools Trades Academy.

Stakeholders also welcomed another new 2017 EIT offering – the Level 3 New Zealand Certificate in Agriculture (Vehicles, Machinery and Infrastructure).

“It meets all their needs; it ticks all their boxes,” horticulture tutor Jackie Lynch says of a programme that teaches the technical skills needed to operate and maintain a range of vehicles and machinery widely used in the primary industries.

Jackie coordinates all of the Primary Industry programmes delivered through Hawke’s Bay’s regional learning centres.

In 2018, EIT will look to introduce the Level 2 New Zealand Certificate in Primary Industry Skills with a focus on apiculture (beekeeping) to Hawke’s Bay.
Responding to growing interest in environmental issues such as living sustainably, lowering living costs and riparian planting, a Level 4 Certificate in Sustainable Primary Production programme will also run on the Hawke’s Bay campus in the coming year.

Two further strands are being made available for studying the New Zealand Diploma in Horticultural Production [Level 5]. The two options are Fruit Production and Nursery Production, which will join the Post-Harvest strand delivered in July 2017.

As well as these level 5 opportunities, the school is also considering adding a nursery strand at level 4.

EIT’s suite of primary industry programme has widened to encompass 20 qualifications, reflecting the institution’s responsiveness to the strengthening agriculture, forestry and horticulture sectors in the Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti regions. EIT’s extensive suite of primary industry qualifications is spurring enrolments by students keen to be part of the upswing in the horticulture, agriculture and forestry sectors.