Originator/Sponsor: MPI
Portfolio Managers: Fiona Windle
Status: In Delivery
Planned delivery date: 31 October 2024
Lead Agency / Service Provider: Scarlatti
Introduction/Background:
MPI previously sponsored a small-scale study exploring the opportunity to formally recognise the skills and knowledge rural women have acquired informally living on-farm with their farming spouse. Scarlatti was contracted to undertake a two-part analysis to explore this opportunity further starting with a market size analysis, followed by a piece of market research to test the value proposition of programmes that formally recognise the skills rural women have developed.
An online survey was used to engage with the target cohort who had the following characteristics to collect insights on their aspirations to enter the workforce, their competency at a range of soft and technical skills, and their preferred pathway into the workforce:
- Woman,
- Aged between 18 and 65 years of age,
- In a relationship with someone working in a food and fibre industry, and
- Not currently working full time.
From the survey’s findings, the following three implications for designing pathways into the workforce for this rural women cohort were identified:
- There are a lot of very talented, skilled, and experienced rural women in the food and fibre sector that are underutilised, although engaging them effectively will be challenging.
- These women generally lack awareness of the workforce and training opportunities available in the sector. A focus on building awareness of these opportunities may be necessary to generate demand for the workforce pathways before investing too much in their design.
- Most rural women Scarlatti surveyed would prefer to enter the workforce by leveraging the formal and informal skills they have already developed. These results highlight a potential opportunity to support rural women into the workforce by providing clarity on the recruitment process, instilling self-confidence to approach employers, and working through some tips and tricks to effectively communicate the value of their skills and experience. This pathway may be more effective than designing a pathway that recognises informally developed skills to engage this cohort in the workforce
The next stage is running interviews across September 2024 to validate the survey findings. This work will then determine if a formal project will be undertaken at a future date.
Objectives:
The objectives of the interviews with rural women following on from the market research analysis and rural women survey will be to:
- Validate the responses received to the rural women survey as part of the market research.
- Assess the extent to which rural women appreciate that the soft and technical skills they possess (whether developed formally or informally) are valued by food and fibre employers and could be an enabler for them to enter the workforce.
- Evaluate how a pathway into the food and fibre workforce would need to be designed to effectively support rural women into the food and fibre workforce including how their barriers to engagement should/could be mitigated
This interactive dashboard highlights the numbers of communities in rural New Zealand, including women married into the food and fibre sector, and rangatahi.
You can also view the following two documents:
- Commentary paper to support the interactive dashboard. Exploring underutilised cohorts in rural New Zealand
- Final market analysis report from the survey. Supporting Underutilised Rural Women into the Food and Fibre Workforce
The above information was current as at 5 September 2024