If you work in the seafood industry you can get training that will help you do well in your job.  And as you gain new skills and qualifications your employer will also reap the benefits as you apply those new skills in your workplace.

Seafood ITO can help you get started now with the few simple suggestions below, and point you in the right direction through the information and contacts provided in our website.

A little background

Industry training is flexible and means that you can fit your training to your own needs.  You might want to gain a wide range of qualifications, or tailor your training to one particular skill.

Industry training is based on unit standards and qualifications on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). The size of these unit standards is measured in credits, where 1 credit means 10 hours of "learning", including formal tutoring, self-directed learning and work experience.

You can learn more about qualifications and unit standards components in the Qualilfications section of this website. 

Starting out

• Start by looking at the information in the Sector pages that are of interest to you.  For example, if you are a Fish filleter, you might want to look at the training opportunities and qualifications available in the Processing sector.
• Discuss with your employer what you want to get out of training and how this will benefit you in your job.   Your employer might find it very useful to contact the relevant Seafood ITO Sector manager to talk about different training options in your Sector, and making the most of them.
• Find out more about the different types of qualifications that are available.  You can start to do this here.
• Consider the type of workload you can handle.  You can start to get an idea of how much work is involved in a qualification here.

Costs

In an industry training environment, the costs of training are usually covered by the employer.  This is where Seafood ITO comes in, helping to subsidise the costs to employers through a series of arrangements with New Zealand's qualifications and training authorities.

You can find out more about these arrangements and how they might affect you under funding and resources.