The threat posed by COVID-19 to the primary sectors led to the formation of a new website, techenabledlearning.nz, providing technology-enabled learning resources and information to educators and providers in forestry, farming, horticulture and fishing, as well as other disciplines.

Developed from the experiences of teaching staff and learners in the food and fibre sector, the website is funded by the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) and supported by the Food and Fibre Centre for Vocational Excellence (FFCoVE).

It started with the ‘lessons from lockdown’ research project, run by research analytics specialist, Scarlatti, in conjunction with Dairy Training NZ, Wintec and the Primary ITO.

The project,  was designed to capture the experiences of the staff and students of training organisations delivering Vocational Education and Training for the primary sector. This was to better understand the role of technology during Alert Level Four, their unique needs, and how technology-enabled learning experiences could be enhanced in future. 

An original focus was to find new modes of training and how to best support the attraction and retention of workers displaced from other industries. However, the direction and outputs of the project were informed by the initial research and the managers, tutors and learners interviewed who brought their own experiences of the lockdown levels.

Paul Hollings, General Manager of the Food and Fibre CoVE, says the information gathered during the project was too good not to use in a meaningful way.

“There is a danger when a research project is done that it ends up in a report that is not widely circulated. The whole idea with this website was to actually make that information accessible to those who needed it.

“What makes this resource special is that, while it is designed specifically for New Zealand Primary Industry tutors and providers, it is relevant to all tutors and providers across the vocational education and training sector. When people look for resources, generally speaking they find overseas products that maybe don’t quite fit the bill. This website does!” 

“Given the rural setting of the industries making it up, we have genuine problems around connectivity in the Food and Fibre Sector and the site addresses that by identifying areas of good and bad connectivity and providing workaround ideas.”