Farm learning by correspondence

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33874, 20 June 1975, Page 18

Farm learning by correspondence

Out of its 20,500 students the Technical Correspondence Institute at Lower Hutt, Wellington, has some 1800 students enrolled in horticultural or agricultural courses, according to Mr E. L. Hardy, a tutor of the institute, who was in Christchurch recently.

And out of its 320 tutors there are about 16 to 18 working in the agricultural and horticultural area and these are divided into three groups — one for horticulture, one for farming courses and another for farm servicing courses. Mr Hardy’s area of responsibility is in farm servicing courses, which are for training for any industry that services farming, such as the stock and station industry, chemical applicators or pest destruction.

who qualified would receive a stock and station industry certificate in agriculture.

There were now about 200 studying in year one of the course and 150 in year two. They were mostly young men, but there were also five women, and they came from districts from Tapanui to North Auckland. In the Canterbury area there were 50 doing the course.

It was recommended that five field days should be held in association with each year of the course to help students to understand their correspondence courses, and while these field days would be the responsibility of individual companies to organise it was expected that they would use people like officers of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries to assist.

The course for staff of stock and station firms is now in its second year and is one Of the most recent additions to the institute’s courses in the farm servicing area.

Mr Hardy said that former All Black and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries officer, Mr R. C. (Bob) Stuart was the executive officer of the Vocational Training Council, and in that capacity his job was to organise all aspects of vocational training in New Zealand.

Mr Hardy said that in the same sort of field they also had a long standing course for chemical applicators and a course for pest destruction staff that was now two years old. A course in rural valuation for the Institute of Valuers was about 10 i years old.

Under the auspices of the council was a series of industry training boards, of which the Stock and Station Industry Training Board was one, and provided these boards met certain requirements they qualified for a 815,000 subsidy which enabled them to employ an industry training officer.

And in the future the institute would be launching a course for hydatids officer training and after that for the training of noxious weed officers of county councils.

The Stock and Station board had an industry training officer and the board comprised 16 member companies of the Stock and Station Agents’ Association. It had asked the Education Department to prepare a teaching programme for its employees and Massey University to prepare an examination programme and the board itself was its own certification authority.

In the farm operation area, Mr Hardy said that there were courses in bookkeeping, which quite a lot of farmers' wives took, and there was a course in soil and fertilisers with four assignments that any farmer could do. And there were some 600 to 800 students studying for the Trades Certification Board certificate in farming — an apprenticeship-type course. These students were working on farms. Mr Hardy noted that quite a lot of the resources

Out of this had come a two-year study programme by correspondence, with examinations, and those

of a technical institute were devoted to preparing students for the examinations of the Trades Certification Board, which was responsible for apprenticeship training, and for the Technicians’ Certification Authority. Most of the T.C.I. students tended to live in the smaller towns like Methven and Rangiora.

"Quite a number walk

.rough the gates each day but not one student,” remarked Mr Hardy in referring to the fact that the institute had a staff of 320 tutors and 140 ancillary staff.

Some 1500 students of the institute, he said, were overseas students in the Pacific Islands and a few were in Indonesia. There was one farming student in Rhodesia, who was sponsored by a religious organisation.

After 25 years, many of the growing pains experienced t, such an organisation had now been smoothed out, Mr Hardy said, and the key to the tutor-student relationship through the assignments sent out to the student and the scripts received in reply was that there was a dialogue between them.

The new concept in tech-

nical education, he said, was in community colleges,

which would not only embrace technical instruction and training, but also such community activities as -hoirs and drama.