Skills Action Plan Reports

Towards a high skill, high wage, high value economySkills Action Plan for theFood and Beverage Sector

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Introduction

Background

Food and beverage is one of the sectors identified underthe Growth and Innovation Framework (GIF) as being keyto New Zealand moving up the GDP per capita ranking ofOECD member countries. The food and beverage sector ispivotal to the economy’s growth and export trade. Thereis already a high level of interaction occurring betweengovernment agencies and the sector.

In 2004, Cabinet agreed that a Food and BeverageTaskforce be established with supporting working groupsto create a three to five year “Development Agenda” forthe sector. The Agenda would include bold targets andsecure stakeholders’ ownership and commitment toimplementing it. The ideal outcome of the taskforce wouldbe that the resources of industry, government, scienceand education are focused in partnership to deliverfaster, smarter, and more sustainable growth in the foodand beverage sector.

The Skills Working Group is one of three working groupsthat report to the Food and Beverage Taskforce. Theworking group’s outcomes and work programme prioritiesare outlined below:

OUTCOMES SOUGHT

• Current and prospective employees view the sector as a career destination of choice.
• Employers are able to attract sufficient numbers of suitably skilled and motivated employees to meet laboursupply needs of an expanding and diversifying sector.
• Employers and employees are able to innovate in the sector and achieve high performing labour and skillssytems.

WORK PROGRAME

Priority 1: Better Labour Market Information

• Forcasting framework, productivity study, science and technology adoption research and skill shortageassessments.

Priority 2: More Strategic Investment in Training

• Skills and training (workplace practices, community awareness, changing occupations, quality and relevance).

Priority 3: Attractive Careers

• High quality workplaces and careers opportunities
• Integration of PhD students into food and beverage companies

The Skills Working Group is co-chaired by the GroupManager, Labour Market Knowledge and Engagement ofthe Department of Labour, and The Secretary of theNew Zealand Council of Trade Unions.

This Skills Working Group report can be found on theDepartment of Labour and New Zealand Trade andEnterprise websites. A separate background documentwill also be available at these locations that contains aselection of papers that were used to inform this report.

Scope

The food and beverage sector is commonly defined asall parts of the value chain from on-farm (paddock) tocustomer (plate). However, most of the effort for thisengagement has concentrated on primary production andmanufacturing/processing components of the value chain.

This has meant a focus on certain food and beverage subsectorsas defined in Appendix 1: Australia and New ZealandStandard Industrial Classification.

Related Work Underway

A considerable amount of skills, training and labour marketrelated work has already been undertaken, that is relevantto the food and beverage sector. The Skills Working Groupacknowledges and supports this work.

Food and Beverage Specific Work Underway

Some examples of food and beverage specific workinclude:

• The Human Capability and Agriculture and HorticultureGroup – developing a schools’ curriculum strategywith goals to increase the profile of the sector,change schools’ perception of the sector, increasethe number of people seeking careers in the sector(eg. more science students) and introduce resourcesacross the curriculum.
• Department of Labour sector engagements(particularly Tourism and Horticulture and Viticulture)- refer to Transferring Learnings across the Primary Sector section of this report, where an example ofsector learnings has been outlined in relation to theHorticulture and Viticulture Seasonal Labour Strategy.
• Skill Needs and Worker Voice in High PerformanceWorkplaces – this will look at the skills needed in NewZealand’s high-tech dairy manufacturing industry;identify skills dairy manufacturing workers need, andwhat determines whether they learn those skills ornot. Fonterra, the New Zealand Dairy Workers Union,and the New Zealand Industry Training Organisation(which covers the dairy industry), will participate inthis study.
• Specific ITO related initiatives such as Farmsafe(ie. training and extension services to farmers),where the Agriculture Industry Training Organisation(AGITO) works collaboratively with Agriculture NewZealand and Telford Rural Polytechnic to develop aneffective programme to change behaviour on thefarm regarding workplace safety.
• Competitive Manufacturing (CMI) – a consortia oforganisations are supporting the development ofchanges in the workplace to increase productivity.It includes a NQF qualification already available atlevel 2-4 and the development of a Diploma for 2007.
• Dairy InSight’s campaign to attract new entrants tothe dairy industry.
• The Department of Labour’s Foundation Skills inSeasonal Workplaces – this includes a foundationskills and task needs analysis (in the horticultureand viticulture seasonal industries), with a view tounderstanding foundation skills needs, the typeof foundation learning programmes that could bepotentially implemented, and the perceived benefitsand opportunities that these programmes offer forimproving workforce productivity.

Other Work Underway

• Skills, training and labour market work already underway(or completed) and relevant to food and beveragebusinesses, includes:
• Tertiary reforms.
• Upskilling the Workforce – there may be flow-oneffects of foundation skills initiatives for food andbeverage employees that need foundation skills .
• Adult Literacy and Life Skill Survey – an OECD surveythat New Zealand is participating in that will measurenumeracy and problem solving skills¹.
• Workplace Productivity Agenda – involvingimplementation across the areas of: awarenessraising; development of diagnostic tools;implementation and research; and evaluation. Inaddition the Department of Labour, Ministry ofEconomic Development and Ministry of ResearchScience and Technology are leading work aroundeach of the seven drivers of workplace productivity,as defined in the Workplace Productivity Agenda,to improve productivity of small to medium sizedenterprises, including those in the food and beveragesector.
• Helping Advance Nga Mahi in Growth and Innovation(H.A.N.G.I Project). The New Zealand Council ofTrade Unions in conjunction with Hui Taumata hasestablished the project to focus on workplaceproductivity education and training for Maori workers.The vision is to increase the number of Ngä KaimahiMaori who engage in workplace learning with thesupport of the unions, enterprises, industry and iwi.
• New Zealand Council of Trade Unions initiatives inlearning, productivity, improving wages and conditionsand Maori economic development.

Transferring Learnings across the Primary Sector

The development and implementation of the Horticulture and Viticulture Seasonal Labour Strategy provides somelearnings that are relevant to the food and beverage sector and the Skills Action Plan, as illustrated in the example below.

Horticulture and Viticulture Seasonal Labour Strategy

The strategy has five objectives for implementation which correspond with the priorities identified by the food andbeverage Skills Working Group:

• Objectives addressing labour supply
  • Objective 1: Providing seasonal work opportunities for New Zealanders
  • Objective 2: Accessing global labour
  • Objective 3: Information for Informed Management of Seasonal Labour
• Objectives addressing the management of labour
  • Objective 4: Developing skilled workers
  • Objective 5: Improving workplace quality and productivity

In implementing the strategy, the governance group of industry and agencies has amalgamated objective fourand five so that there are four sub-groups.

Objective three is critical for the strategy. Horticulture New Zealand, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF),Department of Labour and the Ministry of Social Development (MSD) are working on a forecasting tool that wasinitially developed by BERL last year. The tool uses labour ratios and production data to estimate demand, but thereis very little helpful data available on supply.

This is particularly difficult in this sector because of the large number of illegal workers, and the seasonality ofthe work which means census data may not be fully representative. Sub-group three has a project to adjust theratios used and check the production data region by region with industry. It will develop a means of estimatinglabour supply sources and numbers. The latter will require creative research techniques and the active cooperationof industry. Without sound numbers, the MSD and the Department of Labour have difficulty in recommendingimmigration or Work and Income responses, and the governance group will not be able to influence the allocation ofeducation and training resource.

Developing a productive and skilled workforce is the solution needed for the annual crisis in grapes, apples andkiwifruit industries. The fewer the numbers needed to work, the greater the chance that they can be effectivelyallocated, paid well and have better career prospects. Moving to a situation with fewer more productive, and betterpaid workers (current turnover approx. 300% a season) will assist in improving grower returns.

This requires a national means of easing allocation problems; hence the development of a “harvest trail” underthe strategy, and the establishment of a national system of seasonal coordinators. This has already assisted inattracting workers to the areas of need. Training schemes are being developed in Bay of Plenty for managers,picking staff in Hawkes Bay and for contractor employers in Marlborough.

Sub-group four is coordinating and encouraging these developments. Conversations with regional offices of theTEC and polytechnics are beginning. First steps are also being directed at basic compliance issues. The work takestime, and requires national and regional effort.

The systems to manage this work need further development. This includes generating a response from governmentand industry, but at a regional and national level the resources and relationships needed to bring about change areyet to be generated.

Footnotes

1. Foundation skills are defined as including reading, writing, numeracy,Information Communication Technology, problem solving, oral communicationsand interpersonal skills.

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