WA’s five Colleges of Agriculture meet in Narrogin for first post-pandemic conference

Delegates from all five WA Colleges of Agriculture met in person late last year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic for a two-day conference hosted by WACoA Narrogin. From December 11-12, about 30 attendees from Denmark, Cunderdin, Morawa, Harvey and Narrogin took part in discussions and workshops that explored collaboration, efficiency and innovation with a focus on skill development and WACoA’s learning management system for agricultural certificates. WACoA Narrogin deputy Joan Armstrong said the conference also provided a great opportunity for college staff to network. “It’s a super-busy year, especially being a registered training organisation as well as a college,” she said. “It was about making sure that everybody across the colleges is comfortable with how we run things in terms of planning, organising and accessing. “We’re all slightly different from each other in that we offer different specialisms in the realms of agriculture and trades and it was very much about supporting each other.” While the WA agricultural colleges met electronically throughout the pandemic, Ms Armstrong said that being able to engage in person made a big difference. “We’re all quite used to Zoom and it can be quite easy to forget what you’re going to ask or just switch off a bit,” she said. “It’s important to actually get that face-to-face when we’re thinking strategically about how we’re moving forward.” Director of Agricultural Education Steve Watts also attended the conference to offer insight and information. “He’s got a mass of experience in agricultural education and now he’s kind of our representative within the Department of Education,” Ms Armstrong said. “It’s quite good that we’re collegially talking about our vision, where we see ourselves moving forward in the agricultural space.” Ms Armstrong said that the conference put all five agriculture colleges in good stead for the year ahead. “It was so productive to have that conversation about who we are,” she said. “Agriculture and mining is of benefit to the whole of WA and we’re at the forefront of training young people to go into those worlds of work and make sure that they’re ready for work. “We’re able now to feedback to our principals where we are operationally and where we need to move on to.”