Resources & support
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Learning material development
Potatoes South Africa is fully engaged in skills development for potato producers and their employees. Seven generic unit standard based modules of NQF1 learning material from AgriSETA have been contextualised to be potato specific. However more visual aids are needed to augment the learning material. To this end a DVD on pack house procedure has been developed. It is envisaged that further development of visual aids including production DVD will be done. The goals are to develop visual aids to augment the learning material for the pack house and to produce potato production DVD using the available materials. Read more...
BEE baseline study Potatoes South Africa’s transformation strategy addresses a critical issue – the support of Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and Skills development for potato enterprises. The Board and Management of Potatoes South Africa have realized that we can and should be more proactive in assisting producers with these issues. We are undertaking a baseline study to determine the state of Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) and Transformation in the potato producing enterprises. The study will enable us to find out where we are compared with our sub sector targets and compared to other agricultural industries. More importantly it will help us to find out where the obstacles are and how we can help the producer to overcome them. The goal of the study is to ascertain the current state of the potato enterprises with respect to empowerment and transformation. Read more...
Tertiary skills development pipeline
The new enterprises and empowerment partnership businesses across the country that produces potatoes are making great strides in terms of production. However there are skills gaps within the farming enterprises that need to be addressed in order to build the sustainability of these businesses. One of the strategies aimed at addressing these gaps is to identify talented individuals from within these enterprises and develop their technical and or practical skills through undergraduate bursaries, internships and workplace experience programmes.
Undergraduate Bursary scheme
The Transformation Division launched an Undergraduate Bursary scheme that aims at developing the skills of young farmers in the potato industry through Tertiary Skills Development Pipeline. The pipeline involves identifying talent within existing potato enterprises and developing their farming skills through tertiary education at agricultural colleges resulting in the acquisition of an agricultural diploma and the resultant skills.
The goals of the programme are:
- to develop the technical capacity for the farming enterprise by offering bursaries to deserving talent from the enterprise who want to potato become farmers
- To develop these students from the farming enterprise to acquire technical tertiary education and come back to add value to the business
- To further enhance their skills through internships and workplace experience programmes Read more...
Internships & Workplace experience programme
In terms of existing qualification requirements at certain tertiary educational institutions (especially Colleges and Technikons) students in specific study disciplines have to complete a practical work module in order to obtain a qualification (Internship). This is especially true for students in agricultural fields of study. On the other hand, many of the learners whose qualifications did not require any practical work module and have already qualified are unable to secure employment because of lack of the necessary experience required by the highly competitive job market.
The goals of the programmes are
- To provide Internship training opportunities primarily for bursars in relevant study disciplines requiring practical training and exposure as part of their qualification conditions
- To provide Workplace Experience training opportunities primarily for bursars in relevant study disciplines requiring workplace experience to enhance the employment opportunities and or start their own potato producing enterprises Read more...
Postgraduate Bursary scheme
The Potato Industry Development Trust (PIDT) , acknowledges its responsibility to the broader industry to make a contribution towards ensuring that sufficient post graduates are developed to address the relevant research areas affecting the industry. It is for this reason that the Postgraduate Bursary scheme has been instituted to enable the PIDT to play significant role in increasing the industry’s pool of appropriately qualified scientists. Read more...
AgriBEE and Transformation symposium
Background
On an annual basis and concurrent with Potatoes South Africa congress on every second year, the Transformation Symposium will be hosted.
The goals are:
- To bring all farmer development stakeholders under one roof for opportunity creation, networking and farmers learning from one another
- To show what Potatoes South Africa is doing with regard to transformation
- To do case studies on various transformation models in action
- To create a platform for interaction and debate on transformation- (how do we invent the future- interactive)
- To show case success stories in potato farming development
- Attract investors into farmer development
- To disseminate important information about the AgriBEE processes
- To unpack the AgriBEE scorecard to the producers
Read more...
Farm based training
A culture of training and development is absent and many farmers do not know where or how to access appropriate training. Training is expensive and farms are not motivated to make the investment until they have experienced the benefits.
The goals of the programme are:
- To assist potato farmers busy with transformation projects in supplying proper training for their trustees and shareholders
- To uplift the skill of farm workers focussing on decision making and the understanding of their role
- To assist developing potato farmers with technical and business skills to enable them to farm profitably
- To establish a culture of training and development in the mentioned areas
- To provide real empowerment in share-holding land reform projects by providing trustees with the skills necessary to understand the projects
- To improve the quality of potato production by improving the knowledge base of those producing the potatoes.
Click here to download the criteria
Click here to download the application form form funding
Click here to download the Training Needs Analysis
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