Kia ora koutou,
What a great event the Young Fruitgrower of the Year was! Our congratulations to all the competitors and especially to Grace for her outstanding achievements, and Dani for the great speech.
Many heartfelt thanks and appreciation to HBFA for putting this event together – it is a huge amount of work, but hopefully you feel rewarded by the awesome turn out on Friday night as well as a great vibe on Thursday. Time and effort put into celebrating and supporting our young emerging leaders, is the very best way to show them they are in a vibrant and future focussed industry, and hopefully inspire them to forge successful careers for themselves and their whanau.
The winter is a busy time for EIT, Level 3 students have completed the growing environment course and are working their way through botany, understanding plant structures and processes underpin the pruning courses. They have soil modification practical to complete. Level 4s have completed their first course as well, and are almost through sustainable crop production with Chris Thorman, our Diploma program co-ordinator.
The government has committed to funding the Apprenticeship Boost funding, but there are several caveats. From 2025, apprentices will only be eligible for their first year (ie Level 3 fruit production), and only ‘key’ industries will be funded. That information has yet to be released, but we will be working hard to ensure horticulture remains on that list. Much like last year, we are not sure on course fees at this stage for 2025, but we will be starting a Level 3 cohort at the end of July to pick up students that have completed Certificate in Primary Industries this year, whilst we know we have reduced fees.
Steven and I are out visiting managers this month, and really enjoy the opportunity to catch up face to face to discuss your workers progress, but our doors are always open to any suggestions about training you may have, at any time.
Noho ora mai, Clare, Steven, Chris and Warren.
