Future proofing the northern Australia aquaculture industry need for skilled staff to 2050

Project number: 2021-019
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $18,200.00
Principal Investigator: Leo Nankervis
Organisation: James Cook University (JCU)
Project start/end date: 30 Jun 2021 - 29 Jun 2022
Contact:
FRDC
TAGS
Workforce
SPECIES
Black Tiger Prawn
Banana Prawns

Need

The project is focussed on capacity building to meet the skills needs of an expanding industry and thus fits into strategic priority 5.3: Deliver skills for the new economy. The northern Australia aquaculture industry will need between 1400 and 2300 new skilled staff by 2030 to support projected industry growth. Aquaculture producers identified challenges in the shortage of domestic skilled and experienced aquaculture staff and on-farm biosecurity and health management capacity building. Producers highlighted the requirement to build skills to meet industry growth needs, including professional development for current staff, aligning training with industry needs and promoting career opportunities in the northern Australian aquaculture industry among regional communities. The proposed project aims to de-risk industry investment into growth by matching human capital expansion to industry growth predictions.

Objectives

1. Provide educational providers with documentation of the skills sets required of their graduates in order to shape course outcomes.
2. Provide data on the capacity requirements of education providers into the future to guide the course size needed to meet the expansion ambitions of the industry.
3. Provide evidence and pathways to meaningful careers for students entering the latter stages of secondary education.
4. A workforce education that more closely matches industry demand for qualified personnel.

Final report

Authors: L. Nankervis G. Barbaro A. Irving M. Joyce M. Pizzutto A. Diedrich K. Condon
Final Report • 2023-01-01 • 1.44 MB
2021-019-DLD.pdf

Summary

The aquaculture industry in Northern Australia (NA) is undergoing a period of unprecedented growth, precipitating an increasing demand for skilled staff. To facilitate this growth, the industry requires an increasing stream of suitably skilled and qualified entrants to the industry workforce. Prior to this project, the extent to which educational models aligned to industry requirements was unclear, in terms of graduate knowledge and skills, but also in terms of graduate numbers. We aimed to address this alignment, while also identifying barriers to cost-effective delivery of vocational training for the Northern Australian aquaculture industry and investigating new training models that may assist. We further aimed to identify career pathways and derive careers documentation to better align the interests of potential industry entrants to education and careers pathways, highlighting this industry to those with compatible interests. 

Related research

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People
Industry
Environment

Setting strategic directions for the Australian Barramundi farming sector 2020-2025

Project number: 2019-098
Project Status:
Completed
Budget expenditure: $90,000.00
Principal Investigator: Jo-Anne Ruscoe
Organisation: Australian Barramundi Farmers Association (ABFA)
Project start/end date: 9 Sep 2019 - 29 Apr 2020
Contact:
FRDC
SPECIES
Barramundi

Need

The Australian Barramundi Industry is growing rapidly in terms of production. Collectively the key players in the industry have plans to heavily invest in production capacity, which is likely to result in more than doubling of production over the next five-ten years. A key lesson learned from other emerging agrifood industries is the critical importance of developing a sustainable market by building demand ahead of the expanding supply base in order to mitigate against price erosion. Too often, new industries are preoccupied with the production challenges of their category and ignore the marketing side. Building new markets usually requires a balanced multi-channel strategy covering supermarkets, specialist retailers, food service and export. Multi-channel marketing is critical to avoid any particular channel becoming flooded. Although Australian barramundi is an iconic fish, it faces strong competition from cheap imports.

Pivotal to the success of an emerging industry in its growth phase, is the need for industry discipline with the necessary governance and funding frameworks and processes in place. Most of all, the industry needs to be guided by a strong and focused strategic plan which has the full and enthusiastic support of the member companies.

Objectives

1. To develop a Strategic Plan for the Australian barramundi farming sector 2020-2025

Final report

Author: David McKinna
Final Report • 2020-10-01 • 4.07 MB
2019-098 DLD.pdf

Summary

This strategic plan for the Australian farmed barramundi industry was enabled with funding from Fisheries Research and Development Corporation (FRDC).
The strategy was facilitated and written by McKINNA et al with close input from members of the Australian Barramundi Farmers Association and ABFA CEO Jo-Anne Ruscoe.
The ABFA 2020 –2025 Strategic Plan was finalised during the peak of the COVID 19 pandemic, which has drastically reduced product demand due to the shut down of the foodservice sector. There will be longer term flow-on impacts from this economic shock to the industry including a reduced funding base for the ABFA if the current funding model is retained.
At the time of writing this strategy, it was difficult to assess the full extent of the pandemic shock and ABFA were in the process of preparing a number of response scenarios. How these scenarios play out will influence the priorities and timing of this strategy and ABFA will need to remain flexible in its implementation of the plan. Because of the pandemic, projects identified in the earlier drafts of this strategic plan that were deemed to be important to the long term development of the industry have had to be put on hold because of the significantly reduced resources. This final version of the strategic plan has been edited to reflect what industry consider is realistically achievable in the current funding environment. The programs that have been put on hold will be revisited when resources permit.
Notwithstanding the disruption of the COVID 19 event, this strategy remains sound in its intent and will be relevant for the five year strategy horizon and beyond.