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

across the Primary Sector), which is designed to move
groups of pickers around the country to pick different
crops at different times of the year. This requires them to
be trained in picking a variety of fruit, rather than one type.
Similarily, creative strategies are needed in other parts of
the sector. As a first step, the Department of Labour will
contract a stock-take to:
• Identify initiatives in the food and beverage sector that
are improving its attractiveness.
• Identify work that has been carried out to promote high
quality career opportunities in the food and beverage
sector (or parts of the sector).
3.2 PhD Integration
Action Points
• The Science and Technology Adoption project has
considered the impact of the presence or absence of
PhD students (or such qualified staff), on businesses’
ability to adopt science and technology.
To understand the current supply of those with higher
level qualifications in food and beverage, further work is
necessary to determine the volume of completions and
the relevance of their training to the sector.
There needs to be a better understanding of whether
the sector needs more PhDs (and higher qualified people),
in what field, and whether businesses have the capability
to adopt the science and technologies being developed in
New Zealand or overseas.
To have an innovative and productive workforce, the
sector needs to understand the values of those with
higher level qualifications and actively recruit them. This
means the sector needs to develop an understanding at
the management level of the potentially significant values
that PhDs and those with higher level qualifications may
bring. Those values may be realised through exposing the
food and beverage sector to new technology, and utilising
the knowledge of highly qualified employees to transform
knowledge into productivity gain and/or to add value to
goods and services.
Background
At the 17 November 2005 Food and Beverage Taskforce
meeting, it was noted that there was an opportunity
for greater integration of higher education PhDs within
companies. While a long term approach may be necessary,
it would be a good way for companies to increase their
focus on research and commercialisation opportunities.
If the sector wants to attract more PhDs and people
with higher level qualifications, it needs to become more
competitive in the labour market, have a stronger focus on
research and development and reward research initiatives
that contribute toward companies’ commercialisation
opportunities. It needs to be considered whether there
is sufficient supply of PhDs and those with higher level
qualifications relevant to the food and beverage sector,
and whether the sector understands the value of PhDs
and actively recruits them.
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