Welcome to 2015

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A belated, but nonetheless warm, Happy New Year to all our readers. The Christmas break seems to have gone by in a blink, and here we are into the second month already.

There are some major changes in the wings as the Federal Government moves towards implementing new policies from the middle of this year. Like everyone we are avidly reading discussion papers, preparing our responses, and monitoring the progress closely.

We have also seen Smart and Skilled implemented in NSW. With such a limited number of approved RTOs there have been some major challenges as the meat industry tries to ensure its training needs are met, and every day new problems emerge. I encourage employers, RTOs and the like to continue alerting us to the issues confronting them so that we can prepare a comprehensive submission to the Department for the next year.

High on the agenda of upcoming events is our ‘Paddock to Plate’ Training Conference, being run in partnership with Rural Skills Australia. We have developed a challenging program and have secured some very exciting speakers, so I encourage our readers to start preparing their registrations. There is further information elsewhere in this MINTRACKER.

The first few network meetings are also about to commence and we encourage you to contact us with any agenda items you wish to add. If you haven’t received the invitations for your State yet, please contact Irene Parker on 02 9819 6699.

I also wish to encourage all readers to consider preparing a nomination for the Meat Industry Training Awards. The Hall of Fame in our office lists some very worthy winners from previous years and we would like to see as many nominations as possible. Details elsewhere in this newsletter and on our website.

So, as we launch full pelt into 2015 I look forward to catching up with our readers over the coming months

Jenny Kroonstuiver, CEO

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