The Education and Training Flagship of the Future Farm Industries CRC

DAFWA are running a Salinity concepts course for the South West Catchments on the 28th and 29th July 2010. For further information about the workshop contact Arjen Ryder or Justin Hardy.

A number of training events are scheduled for the remainder of 2010 including Soil Biology and Soil Carbon workshops. For more information on dates and locations of these activities
contact the workshop program coordinator.

About the EverTrain Project

Project description

‘Evertrain' is the Future Farm Industries Cooperative Research Centre's (FFI CRC) flagship training project. It aims to promote participation in both accredited and non-accredited training activities by those responsible for managing Australia's rural landscape, and promote the adoption of sustainable farming systems based on profitable perennial technologies developed by the CRC and its' partners across the entire dryland agricultural regions of Australia.

The project is an extension of the 'Promoting Salinity Solutions through Agribusiness' project that was developed by the former "Cooperative Research Centre for Plant~based Management of Dryland Salinity' (Salinity CRC). The project centres around the work of the NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI) Natural Resource Management Extension team. The NSW DPI NRM extension Team were active in the development of the (National) training packages for Rural Production (RP) and Conservation and Land Management (CLM), and this group forms the core human resource for the project.

The former Salinity CRC developed 13 headline technologies for improving profitability and sustainability of farming practises, and the FFI CRC will continue to develop and refine new systems. The Evertrain project provides the structure to allow the development and deployment of both accredited and non-accredited training to extend these technologies.

The NSW DPI NRM extension team have established a partnership with the Murrumbidgee Rural Studies Centre (MRSC), part of Tocal College. Tocal College is a Registered Training Organisation (RTO), and registered to deliver the RP and CLM training packages. The extension team, who are all accredited in Workplace Training and Assessment, are ‘sub-licensed’ to assess the competencies described in the training package. This group will develop training materials and perform assessment services for accredited training activities provided in the ‘Evertrain’ project.

The intended target groups for the training include Landholders, Farm advisors, Regional catchment groups and anyone interested in the future of Australian agriculture.

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Evertrain project structure

The FFI CRC Evertrain project team have developed a model that will provide a flexible approach to the delivery of both accredited and non-accredited training activities across Australia. The model (illustrated in Figure 1) consists of several elements that together provide a national approach to the delivery of training for the FFI CRC. There are 3 core elements of the program that will play pivotal roles in its’ success: the Content Management System (CMS), the National Assessment Team (NAT) and State Training Coordinators.

Figure 1 – Evertrain project structure

CMS

Central to the functionality of ‘Evertrain’ is a CMS. The FFI CRC have deployed DOTS (Dynamic Online Training System), an Australian developed software platform for this purpose. DOTS combines the functions of student and content management and will automate much of the training delivery, record keeping and reporting required to satisfy the legislative requirements of the AQF.

NSW DPI – National Assessment Team (NAT)

The NSW NRM extension team will provide a National Assessment Service function for assessment of competencies in accredited training activities, in conjunction with State coordinators across all four states.

In the ‘Evertrain’ model, training modules are developed that can be deployed and completed online, or by attending regional workshops. These modules will promote new technologies developed by the CRC, and where possible, learning outcomes will be matched to competencies within the RP and CLM packages. If the activities are not accredited they will still be recognised with attendance statements provided by the CRC.

Online modules will be developed centrally, while regional activities will be organised and run by state coordinators, embedded within local CRC partner organisations. Members of the NAT will attend accredited workshops to provide assessment services for the competencies being addressed by the workshop. There will be no need to provide these services for non-accredited activities.

The NAT will certify assessment outcomes in DOTS, and liaise with both the RTO and the AQF to ensure compliance of the program with AQF guidelines.

State coordinators

The role of State coordinators is to coordinate the training activities in each state. This would include planning and arranging the delivery of regional workshops and determining how many participants will be assessed for the competency supported by the training program. Workshops will be structured as:

stand alone training,
training and assessment workshops, or alternately
could be developed as an assessment workshop only i.e. for participants who have completed underpinning knowledge assessments online and only require assessment of a particular competency.

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