PIEFA

It's on again!

LIGHTNING SESSION #1

MONDAY, MAY 1 @ 11:10am

Lightning sessions offer delegates a snapshot into the presenters field of expertise or research. Each lightning presentation runs for 5-minutes and will be held in the main plenary room – National Ballroom 2 – within Hotel Realm. 

LIGHTNING PRESENTATION TITLE: Planting the seed for Agriculture
HOST: The Royal Agricultural Society of NSW
Duncan Kendall, Head of Education
DESCRIPTION:
​The Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Education Team wishes to share the journey of supporting teachers to use integrated/thematic elements of agriculture into their classrooms through the Ag in a Box project (https://www.rasnsw.com.au/education/education-resources/ag-in-a-box/).
Ag in a Box project is jointly funded through the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program. The project went from an initial 428 expressions of interest for Box 1, to 1 435 expressions of interest in 1 year for Box 4.
Come and enjoy the journey that is till evolving in 2023, the highs and lows and what can be harnessed to inform Agricultural Education in Australia.

 

 

LIGHTNING PRESENTATION TITLE: Connecting Paddock to Plate in the Classroom
HOST: The Little Farmer’s Community
Kate Webster, Founder
DESCRIPTION
As we are all aware there are significant gaps in the knowledge children have regarding where common food and fibre products originate. There have been a range of surveys conducted over the years which showcase much of this knowledge shortfall. This presentation will take into account the previous research conducted on students’ knowledge around the origins of everyday food and fibres, identifying areas of concern along the way. Additionally, the preliminary results from the surveys deployed by the Little Farmers Community surrounding students’ agricultural knowledge and the barriers inhibiting teachers from focusing on these key agricultural pathways in the classroom will be discussed. This presentation will conclude by summarising the resources currently available to teachers as well as showcasing the specially developed resources from The Little Farmer’s Community, designed to provide insight on production and processing pathways across key agricultural industries, via a range of subject areas in the classroom (in conjunction with school curriculums) for kindergarten through to Year 4.

 

 

LIGHTNING PRESENTATION TITLE: Skills and training needs for a future-ready agriculture workforce
HOST: Australian National University
  • Rachael Rodney-Harris, Agricultural Innovation Training and Education Convenor, Fenner School of Environment and Society and Centre for Entrepreneurial Agri-Technology
DESCRIPTION:
An appropriately skilled workforce will be critical for the agri-food sector to respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by global, national and local trends. Here we present the results of recent research aimed at understanding the skills and training needs of Australian agricultural industries now and in the future. We identified broad skills areas that will be crucial, including fundamental operational skills; business, strategy and decision-making; research and development; data and digital; agri-tech; regulation, compliance and quality assurance; biosecurity and health; sustainability and carbon; climate adaptation; people management and interpersonal; communication, advocacy and marketing; and education, training and extension.

 

 

LIGHTNING PRESENTATION TITLE: Agriculture graduates vs job vacancies
HOST: NSW Department of Primary Industries
  • Megs Dunford, Schools Program Officer
DESCRIPTION:
“At the moment there are six jobs to every one agriculture graduate in Australia” (NSW Farmers, 2023). In this talk the NSW DPI Schools Program team will present the prospects and some challenges in engaging the future workforce into careers in agriculture, along with ways we are working to combat those challenges and help industry place employees. We will deep dive into the diverse career opportunities, training and education support the NSW DPI offers. There will be a focus on our student resources, Tocal College courses, industry entry pathways, and the diversity of career opportunities in the DPI. This session will challenge perceptions of what current and future careers in Agriculture and Primary Industries looks like, along with sharing the exciting and optimistic space that industry is facing.

 

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