Horticultural employment symposium

Abstract

Educational and training institutions are frequently accused of failing to anticipate employment trends and only manage to tum out students after the employment demands starts to decline. This criticism may in some circumstances be justified but it should be remembered in educations defence that education and training need a long lead time and unless the public perception of job prospects are not well and truly established it is difficult for educational institutions to recruit students ahead of demand. The purpose of this seminar is to alert those involved in guiding students towards careers and training opportunities to the fact that horticultural expansion in a number of areas is on the move in Canterbury. We have brought together a number of speakers internal and external to the educational institutions who are in the position to comment on the employment opportunities which this will create. Timing in education is everything. If training occurs too far ahead of industry development, students feel cheated if no jobs are available after they have completed their training. If too late, industry is critical that the trained work force is not available when they need it most. We hope that this seminar will help focus public perceptions on the radical land use changes which are taking place and will accelerate in Canterbury over the next few years and the job opportunities and training which will be required to fill them.