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Background The River Murray training story - What they do Flexible training options are being welcomed by Australian wine producers who often have difficulty accessing traditional face-to-face training options. River Murray Training Managing Director Barbara McPherson said, "Rural businesses face common challenges in accessing training. Like all businesses, employers are looking for people with highly specialised skills. Seasonal demands and production-driven environments mean businesses and individuals are challenged to find the time to commit to traditional face-to-face training delivery. Training has to fit in around the sometimes-unexpected demands on a business such as when the fruit is ready to harvest or an export order for that special blend of wine comes in." "Our rural and agribusiness clients, such as the wine industry, are leading the way in taking up flexible training options as it is the only way a business can be consistently guaranteed ongoing training in a niche area. A flexible learning option does not have to be a 'second-best or better-than-nothing' choice. In fact some areas of learning can be better achieved through simulation in a controlled interactive environment than in a traditional classroom setting," Barbara said. With clients spread across regional areas, River Murray Training has a cooperative approach to learning, which often brings together sometimes-competing clients. River Murray Training set up a horticulture blended learning training project that includes using of web based training materials. Located in the Malley Region of South Australia, two hours from the nearest training facility River Murray Training is making use of the Willunga High School site. In return for providing the infrastructure for school's staff and students are can access online learning materials. Barbara said, "Local horticulture businesses and schools access the materials for their employees and students respectively. Some of the students also link with those businesses for relevant on-the-job skill development." A blended approach was implemented that included face-to-face delivery and used web based materials on a CD Rom (Horticulture Flexible Learning Toolbox). The CD Rom incorporated technology that created a virtual horticultural work place. Learners undertook activities and tasks, accessed the resources needed to complete tasks and had the opportunity practice skills at their own pace before taking on the real world. The virtual setting included a realistic garden area and a nursery, a pergola, machinery shed and a lunchroom. Learners were able to explore the environment in much the same way as they could if they were really out in a garden. Using the CD learners could also get advice from experts who provided hints and tips that helped learners complete tasks and activities. Navigating through the CD materials learners chose an expert from the staff profiles on the pin board in the virtual lunch room. In the lunch room learners select resources including information in a magazine style format, with horticultural articles, letters from readers and such things as pruning tips. Slide shows demonstrating particular horticultural processes and procedures are accessed as 'videos' stored on the virtual bookcase in the lunch room. In 2002 Barbara received national funding to undertake a professional development project (Flexible Learning Leaders). She investigated the flexible training strategies preferred by rural organisations, corporations and small businesses. This research accelerated River Murray Training's foray into flexible training delivery. Barbara said as a result of doing this research she now feels more confident about making decisions about flexible learning such as where to commit resources, how products for online delivery should look and how I can deliver to business. "It was a great networking opportunity and seeing what industry was doing really opened up our horizons," she said. River Murray Training had incorporated a range of strategies into their training business including flexible learning products and services and is planning to develop customised flexible learning materials for clients. "For instance we develop interactive resources to support training for bottling line operators. This is typically a difficult area to service in the wine industry as it is a niche market with a production-driven environment and there is a lack of experienced trainers," Barbara said. River Murray Training client base includes 40 partnership training arrangements
within the national and international wine industries. Taylors Wines from
the Clare Valley, famous for their award-winning reds and rieslings was one
of their first clients who went on to win the Australian National Training
Authority (ANTA) Employer of the Year award for South Australia and were
national finalists in 2000 for their training system. Other well known companies
such as Yalumba Wine Company and Hardy Wine Company also value the flexibility
provided to them under partnered training arrangements. River Murray Training's
most recent client is Pacific Wine Partners in California. How they got there - The Australian Flexible Learning FrameworkThe Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) was established in 2000 to support the vocational education and training (VET) system to meet the rapidly increasing demand for flexible learning and e-learning from industry, enterprise and clients. The Framework is a five-year national strategy collaboratively funded by the Australian Government and all States and Territories to achieve a shared vision of a skilled Australian workforce. River Murray Training used a range of Framework products and services that assisted them make inroads into flexible learning including: Flexible Learning Leaders is a professional development opportunity that
registered training organisations can access. It offers funding and mentor
support to individuals in developing their skills and knowledge about how
to apply technology and e-learning products in the flexible delivery of training. Flexible Learning Toolboxes are web-based learning materials that support
the online delivery of qualifications from nationally recognised training
packages. 74 Toolboxes have been developed to date. Flex e-News
Last updated: January 31, 2006 |
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