Kia ora koutou,
Its been a big year! We feel for you all, combatting the challenges of the season, and are doing our best to support students to keep up with their classwork whilst not adding too much pressure. Our ‘year’ ends in December and we need to know before 17th November if students are not going to complete everything, so we can withdraw them for those courses and re-enrol for next year. There is no problem with students taking two years to complete any of our courses, or longer for Diplomas, we just need to know. Please talk to your student about this. We can keep accepting assessment work beyond the 17th.
Our early intake of year one students have almost completed their courses, with our second hydralada session at the end of this week, we also have forklifts, tractors and chainsaws this month.
Level 3 fruit production students are half way through crop health – this is a big subject, covering pests, diseases, disorders and their controls in three days. They also have a short cass on thinning/crop load later in the month.
Level 4 students have been applying the knowledge of analysing the soil and environment in the Growing Environment subject to design and plant a productive orchard. It’s been great to see the different perspectives on orchard functionality.
Level 5 fruit production are involved in the timely subject of labour management. With the thinning and harvest tasks approaching they are discussing strategies to encourage and manage labour. There is a hearty cohort of 22 on the post Harvest diploma at various stages of completing their qualification.
We will be supporting all students to apply for HBFA scholarships in their next tutorials. The timetables for next year will be out by the end of the month, with a slightly different look and structure. We have tried to build in more flexibility for both students and staffing, and as always your feedback is greatly appreciated.
We are still awaiting news on fees from Te Pukenga for 2023, and will inform you as soon as we know ourselves.
Noho ora mai, from EIT
