A New Approach to Learner Pathways: Skills Framework

By taking a skills-first approach means that businesses get employees with the right skills and competencies for a particular role, rather than getting someone with a particular qualification or job title.

The benefits of this approach include unlocking hidden talent pools, increasing productivity, supporting talent mobility and redeployment, and promoting diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Skills Framework is a visual representation of the skills required for the food and fibre sector, infused with Te Ao Māori, explicitly using and prioritising Māori understanding of areas such as sustainability and wellbeing, and can be enhanced over time as future skill needs are realised.

The Skills Framework will contribute towards creating education products that maximise flexibility and transferability, while remaining meaningful to industry and allowing opportunities for specialisms.

The framework helps to provoke conversation, allows employers to recognise skills and identify areas or qualifications that need further development.

The key parts of the framework cover the following areas:

• Core transferable skills – where current skills can be built on in other areas of work.
• Core technical skills – generic skills common to most industries in the food and fibre sector.
• Specialised technical skills – unique skills or knowledge for a certain industry.
• Bodies of knowledge – develop superior knowledge in a particular area.

The project has developed a range of recommendations that will be investigated more thoroughly throughout 2024. A subsequent research report and presentation was completed that looked at the knowledge and skills learners in Primary Industries are getting through their qualifications.

Check out the online Food and Fibre Skills Framework, which makes it easier for employees, employers, and educators to access and use.

We’re inviting organisations to review the framework and share feedback, as well as collaborate on the next steps for its broader implementation. If you’re interested in shaping the future of skills development in the food and fibre sector, we’d love to hear from you. Reach out to Portfolio Manager Jackie Lynch to get involved.