100% of Meat Inspection Staff NZQA Registered

100% of Meat Inspection SOE’s Frontline Staff have Achieved NZQA Registration

ASURE New Zealand Limited, the State Owned Enterprise responsible for the delivery of meat inspection services to the New Zealand meat industry has announced that it has completed a programme to formally train and assess well over 800 meat inspection staff to the National Certificate in Meat Inspection Services, a qualification registered on the national qualifications framework.

The National Certificate in Meat Inspection Services is made up of a collection of both practical and theory based unit standards that cover all aspects of meat inspection. The national certificate is just below diploma level and takes about six months to complete.

“This is an exciting day for us” said Terry Pierson, ASURE’s Chief Executive. “In 1999 we embarked on a programme to formally measure the skills and training of our meat inspection staff against a transparent nationally recognised standard. During that time, in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Public Service Training Organisation, the Public Services Association and with the co-operation of the meat industry, we developed the National Certificate in Meat Inspection Services. It was registered by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) just over a year ago. Since then we have trained and assessed our staff against national standards with this effort culminating in the completion of the National Certificate of Meat Inspection Services by more than 800 staff.

Mr Pierson said that ASURE was very proud of the effort that its meat inspection staff had made in achieving the National Certificate. “ASURE is now able to demonstrate it is a world class meat inspection provider with staff training levels as good, if not better than any other country.”

Ian Baldick of the Public Service Association, the union that represents over 95% of ASURE meat inspection staff said, “The PSA is pleased to see that meat inspectors qualification has been brought in line with modern qualification recognition. In recent years meat inspectors’ qualifications had slipped into the doldrums and the process that ASURE has now gone through has brought the qualification into the modern environment. The qualification adds to meat inspectors’ other qualifications”.

Jay Lamburn, Executive Director of the Public Sector Training Organisation is impressed with the commitment made by ASURE. “This is the single biggest commitment to formalising staff skills into national qualifications in the public sector to date. We have worked with ASURE for a number of years to develop the standards and qualifications, and it is very satisfying to see this work come together with the completion of the qualification for existing inspectors. Congratulations ASURE New Zealand – and congratulations to all the graduates.”

Qualifications Authority tertiary group manager Martin Eadie said for over 700 people to complete a National Certificate in its first year was extraordinary. “This puts the meat inspection qualification in the top 20 of all Framework qualifications and shows the benefit of establishing agreed national standards. Commitment to quality and collaboration is what the Framework is all about and ASURE has set a fine example for other industries.”

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