Curtin Uni to offer new Agribusiness Course
18/4/2018Curtin University is on track to get an Agribusiness course offered in their curriculum. They have started the consultation process with some key industry stakeholders to help determine what the course outline will be for the new degree.
Curtin University is on track to get an Agribusiness course offered in their curriculum. They have started the consultation process with some key industry stakeholders to help determine what the course outline will be for the new degree.They are proposing the two-year associate degree which was announced in August of 2017 by the State government. It could work out to be a pathway to the Bachelor of Agribusiness degree which Curtin University currently offers as a three-year program.
There were over 40 attendees at the meeting for brainstorming ideas for the course outline. The attendees include agribusiness stakeholders and employers. The course outline is set to be released towards the middle of this year. One of the attendees of the meeting was Deborah Terry, the vice-chancellor of Curtin University, who noted that the meeting was useful for analysing and vetting the needs of the industry employers.
The input provided by the participants was deemed very valuable. “They also provided some beneficial suggestions on how Curtin and the agribusiness sector can collaborate to produce graduates with these attributes.”
Brad Forrester, the chairman of the Farm Machinery and Industry Association (FMIA) of WA supported the relevancy of course topics that included precision agriculture, agricultural data and business. There was also a note of the high demand for training opportunities for persons who want to enter the farm machinery sector.
Mr Forrester said the meeting was profitable and that the outlook for the course after the session was highly optimistic.
“Obviously Curtin’s angle is to engage greater enrolments in their agribusiness side of things, but it’s good that they recognise that there is a gap there."
He commended Curtain for not catering exclusively to the big money sectors such as mining, and recognising the growing opportunities in Agriculture;
"...it’s more of a staple, and every year we seem to be very similar – our employment is the same, the money they’re generating out of our industry is the same – so I think they’re hoping to create a better backbone through that.”
He also noted that a significant focus of the discussions was on workplace learning. The degree would help to foster work experience opportunities for students who will be majoring in the course. While they will be working with Muresk, there could be other local and rural traders and dealerships along with other businesses that could participate in the program.
The next few months will see more industry consultations taking place and the course outline will hopefully be released early enough ahead of enrollments for 2019. In March there was a meeting with over 30 school principals to discuss desired graduate attributes and critical themes. They have planned some regional visits and further consultation with stakeholders to do more to get the course on the way.