Over sixty meat retailing assessors now have the tools and skills to provide Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) for butchers.  Assessors from all states of Australia participated in a series of national workshops conducted by MINTRAC during April and May, and are now prepared to provide consistent, customer-focussed RPL opportunities to practicing meat retailers.

“There are many practising butchers who, for many reasons, might never have gained their trade qualifications,” said Jenny Kroonstuiver, CEO of MINTRAC. “The national RPL strategy provides a means of gaining those qualifications without having to formally undertake an apprenticeship.”

MINTRAC worked for several months to develop RPL tools for meat retailing based on the Queensland Skills First RPL model, and then applied to DEEWR for funding under the
Fast-Track Apprenticeships program to run training workshops for assessors in each State.

The Skills First system uses a range of methods to establish and assess the current skills and knowledge of the applicant, and does not rely on the collection of ‘bucket loads’ of paper-based evidence, which has been a feature of many traditional systems of RPL.

“At each workshop, the tools were validated and improvements suggested.  We are confident now that we have a robust, tested system and that assessors can be confident that they are using a nationally consistent approach to RPL,” said Ms Kroonstuiver.

The workshops, facilitated by Fast-Track Project Officer Darren Scott and Response Learning Manager Wendy Hall, attracted butchery lecturers and assessors, as well as assessors from other areas of food processing.

The RPL strategy was developed by MINTRAC as one of the many approaches to competency-based training for butchers being developed under a two-year program funded under the DEEWR Fast-Track Apprenticeships program.

Under the recent Federal Budget, the Fast-Track Apprenticeships program funding has been refocused into the Smarter Apprenticeships program.

The Smarter Apprenticeships program will provide industry with the means to adopt and foster support for accelerated training delivery and drive structural change to industry training delivery to embed true competency based training for apprentices. The Program aims to tackle cultural and attitudinal change in industries to demonstrate that accelerated training doesn’t compromise training quality.

More information about the Fast Track Butchery Apprenticeships program is available from MINTRAC on 1800 817 462.