Skills Institute

Wednesday, 21 November 2012 - 11:05am

A group of 10 Tasmanian dairy farmers has just completed a pilot program designed by The Skills Institute (TSI) and DairyTAS  and funded by Skills Tasmania to formalise a recognition process for working dairy farmers throughout the state.

Recognition acknowledges working dairy farmers’ existing skills and knowledge and the program maps this against units of competence from the Diploma of Agriculture (Dairy).

The participants for the project were selected through an Expression of Interest process managed by DairyTAS. Participants worked with TSI teaching staff to analyse the units of competence that make up the Diploma of Agriculture (Dairy) and documented the types of evidence they would expect to see from people undertaking a recognition process.

The pilot group then developed a matrix showing how the evidence they had identified matched with the elements, performance criteria, required skills and knowledge of the qualification.

TSI staff then developed both a participant kit and an assessor kit for the Diploma of Agriculture (Dairy), and then TSI assessors enrolled the Pilot group in the qualification and diarised appointments with individuals to begin the evidence collection, assessment and validation process.

Participants in the pilot program were presented with a certificate of recognition at the DairyTAS AGM last week. The Pilot Group were: Steven Saltmarsh, Allison Small, Chris Small, Cheryl McCartie, Andrew Lester, Troy Smith, Brett Schofield, Wayne Huisman, Angela Huisman and Derek McAdam.