A Working Group, initiated by a National Agricultural Education Forum, has been appointed and is now underway. Its aim is to prepare a strategy to boost food and fibre education at a national level, in schools across Australia.
“We had an outstanding response to the Expression of Interest with many talented, committed and well-connected people indicating interest in being involved,” Luciano Mesiti, PIEFA CEO said.
The Working Group agreed to prioritise researching and reporting on current initiatives that are underway, acknowledging the great work many individuals and organisations already do for food and fibre education – with the hope to build upon existing programs. This will help direct the Working Group strategy.
The Working Group also recognised the importance of providing students in all States and Territories greater opportunity to study agriculture in high school, as well as the need for many more teachers across both primary and secondary school to become confident in teaching food and fibre content.
The Working Group is comprised of:
Chair: Ms Adele Laughton, CEO at Future Farmers Network
Corporate Representative: Ms Catherine Velisha, Managing Director at Velisha Farms and Managing Director at Veg Education
Education Representative: Mr Scott Graham, Head teacher of Agriculture at Barker College and PhD candidate in Agricultural Education at Charles Sturt University
Research and Development Corporation Representative: Ms Maxie Hanft, Industry and Government Relations Manager at Grains Research and Development Corporation
Project Secretariat: Dr Bridie Schultz, Director at Sativus Pty Ltd
PIEFA Representative: Dr Cameron Archer AM, Chair at PIEFA
Project Manager: Mr Luciano Mesiti, CEO at PIEFA
