AgriBusiness is a truly innovative project to create a Centre of Excellence for Agricultural Science and Business in New Zealand. A group of educators realised that although there is some emphasis to encourage young people into the primary sector careers, there is no structured programme at secondary school level to encourage students to take up careers in agribusiness.
The AgriBusiness Moodle site shows how support has been found from Universities in Waikato, Massey and Lincoln, around a dozen lead schools, and industry partners too.
The new Agribusiness courses will be NCEA (National Certificate of Educational Achievement) Level 2 and 3 courses that focus primarily ‘beyond the farm gate’ and target bright tertiary capable Science and Commerce students.
Simon Ward, Director of Digital Learning at St Paul’s Collegiate School in Hamilton (one of the lead schools) notes that “Agribusiness industries form the backbone of our New Zealand economy, contributing 70% to our export earnings. Moodle provides a unique opportunity to construct an innovative agribusiness programme and a ground breaking curriculum that will provide a long term career pathway for many of our students.”
Simon adds “Choosing to work with an established Moodle Partner HRDNZ, enabled us to get up-and-running efficiently, and not to have to worry about the hosting, maintenance, upgrades, plugins and so on, but focus on our curriculum and our learners.”
Visit the AgriBusiness site to discover more about their educational package offer with Moodle.
