skills acTion Plan for The food and Beverage secTor - Department of ...

• Promoting ‘good practice’ within Crown Research
Institutes as to how scientists and business work
together to solve real problems within particular
business contexts.
Phase two will involve progressing these findings from
phase one with relevant industry and government agencies.
1.3 Skill Shortages
Action Points
collaborate to create a New Zealand Incorporatedscale
new value stream.
There are however, opportunities to improve the system
to better facilitate science and technology adoption.
A number of suggested improvements for both industry
and government to consider are:
• Improving availability and accessibility (perhaps through
pooling) to key technical skills (eg. engineering process
design, food technology).
• Creating a service for the collection and dissemination
of pragmatic and up-to-date free market intelligence
in the vegetable and savoury food sub-sector to be
accessed through a single portal.
• Provision of brokerage skills to connect generators
and users of technology and science.
• Actively identifying and developing opportunities to
achieve higher levels of collaboration, especially in
export markets.
• Information has been gathered for the Skills Working
Group on genuine skill shortages and recruitment
and retention difficulties for bakers, butchers, chefs,
dairy farmers and dairy farm workers, and food
technologists. Appendix two outlines ways to address
these issues. The Skills Working Group will consider how
best to promote these solutions.
• Efforts will continue to improve the quality of labour
market information about skill shortages in the
food and beverage sector to better inform tertiary
education and training strategies and priorities.
Background
Skill shortages can indicate a healthy, dynamic economy
creating new jobs and expanding existing jobs at a fast
pace. However, shortages may also be imposing a cost on
the economy, by constraining the outputs of a business.
The education and training system is crucial to raise skill
levels and adjust the skills required to match the current
and future workforce. To attract and retain a highly skilled
workforce, businesses need to offer appropriate wages
and fund appropriate levels of training, introduce worklife
/flexible work practices and address recruitment and
retention difficulties.
It is important that tertiary education and training
investment and strategic decisions factor in the need to
address skill shortages in the food and beverage sector.
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