Capacity building for best practice management of invasive pests: learning to protect Australia s future.

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1 Capacity building for best practice management of invasive pests: learning to protect Australia s future. Final report to the Australian Government, Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences Dated 10 th December Project name Capacity building for best practice management of invasive pest: learning to protect Australia s future. 2. Project objectives The goal of this project was to develop and expand the current Diploma skill-set in pest animal management into a long-term viable series of educational offerings that include a full diploma and full graduate diploma in the long-term, to significantly increase the extent to which damage due to pest animals is addressed using a strategic and coordinated approach that is consistent with the Australian Pest Animal Strategy (APAS). This was to be achieved though the successful completion of three main objectives:- 1. Revise, redevelop, and expand the current six diploma level subjects in Strategic Pest Animal Management, to provide a full Diploma. 2. Develop a Graduate Diploma in Applied Science (Strategic Pest Animal Management) to be offered through the University of Canberra. 3. Expand the reach and effectiveness of the Diploma and Graduate Diploma courses through targeted marketing and student enrolments and through the establishment of the diploma as a sustainable educational offering for national training needs in pest management. This will include raising industry and community awareness through advertising the course in appropriate forums such as feral flyer, at regional pest animal management forums, and through presentations at national pest animal and wildlife management conferences. Significant progress was made toward the meeting and completion of these objectives as the project progressed. Each of the objectives was met or exceeded prior to the conclusions of the program. 3. Project location This project was based at and run through the University of Canberra 4. Methodology The CLM course run through the University of Canberra College was updated and upgraded to deliver a full Diploma under the AQF framework. All students enrolled in the course after the first year of the course have been able to study at the full diploma level. The upgraded course is available for other Registered Training Organisations to deliver.

2 A Research Associate was employed at 0.5 for 18 months to assess the conclusions and recommendations of the VPC training review and to develop the graduate program through the University of Canberra. The CLM package was re-scoped and upgraded to a graduate certificate level by the research associate. This course was passed through the University of Canberra s course approval process. The course was opened to students in The employment of the research associate was increased to 0.6 FTE after 18 months to attempt to offset the additional load that teaching the full 12 credit points of the graduate course imposed. Dr Braysher has been actively involved in the review of the competencies that form the basis of the Conservation and Land Management training package. This review has been undertaken by Agrifood Skills Australia and will see a new and revised set of competencies form the basis for pest management training as part of the CLM training package. This review by Agrifood Skills Australia is on-going as is Dr Braysher s involvement. 5. Results Objective 1. The Strategic Pest Animal Management course was expanded and redeveloped into a full diploma level course. The Diploma in Conservation and Land Management (specialising in Pest Management) is currently being offered at the Vocational Education and Training level through the University of Canberra College. All milestones for this objective have been met and completed. Objective 2. The position of Assistant Professor was advertised and Dr AJ Buckmaster was appointed to the position on the 8 th February A Graduate Certificate in Wildlife Management (Invasive Animals) has been developed and approved by the University of Canberra Academic Board. The first intake of students occurred in 2012 with all students having successfully completed the course. These students will graduate with a Graduate Certificate in Wildlife Management (Invasive Species) at the University of Canberra graduation ceremony on the 27 th March All milestones for this objective have been met and completed. A Graduate Diploma and a Wildlife Masters course were developed that would allow students to study a variety of subjects in the applied science, policy, management and law fields. This style of course design would allow students to tailor their Masters degree to suit their particular requirements. The Graduate Certificate and the Graduate Diploma were to have been fully subsumable into the Masters degree. This was a modular design for the courses where each lower award is fully subsumable into the higher level award. This gave students the flexibility to leave their studies with a recognised award (Grad Cert or Grad Dip) and then return at a later stage to complete a higher level award without the need to re-do the lower level courses. Unfortunately these courses, including the graduate certificate, will no longer be offered at UC. There are two main reasons, first despite considerable marketing and promotion, there have been insufficient interest in the course to make it economically viable even though we believe that there is a major need for training at this level in strategic pest management.

3 Secondly, UC staff were not available to develop and teach the additional units for the Diploma and MSc. However, there is a market for shorter and cheaper course in strategic pest management at the post graduate level. Currently UC is keen to develop a series of short professional development courses in strategic pest management and environmental management more generally. A business model is being developed with the aim of offering the first course later in Much of the material developed for the graduate certificate will be used in these courses Objective 3. At the request of the Vertebrate Pests Committee, the IA CRC commissioned a report on the current and future needs for pest animal training. The report noted the parlous state of training at all levels and recommended that the VPC develop a training strategy. In response UC, the IA CRC and Industry and Investment NSW approached Agrifood Australia to assist with a detailed assessment of current training and what changes are required for future training. The results of this review will be used to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy for the VET Diploma course in strategic pest management. Targeted marketing of the courses is currently underway through presentations at conference and workshops involving participants in the field of vertebrate pest management. A paper was delivered at the Australasian Wildlife Management conference in Torquay in December 2010 (Braysher M, Krebs C, Buckmaster, T. (2010)). This paper discussed the need for training of managers in the strategic management of invasive animals and referred people towards both the Diploma course and the Graduate Certificate course. A presentation was given at the 15 th Australian Vertebrate Pest Conference in Sydney in June 2011 (Buckmaster T and Braysher M (2011) Abstract attached as Annexure A to this report). This presentation was well received by the attendees of the conference and a number of people have since expressed interest in enrolling in the courses at the University of Canberra. International conferences have also been targeted with a presentation / paper presented at the 25 th Vertebrate Pest Conference in Monterey, California in March 2012 entitled Strategic Vertebrate Pest Management Training. A manuscript was also prepared for publication in the proceedings of the conference and a copy of the accepted manuscript is attached as annexure B to this report. Industry and community awareness of both the VET and Graduate Certificate programs was increased through targeted advertising of the programs through the IA CRC newsletter, Feral flyer, industry based publications and newsletters and by articles in the newsletters of relevant professional societies. Handouts detailing the courses and their content were prepared and printed. These handouts have been made available at most national and state level conferences involving pest management practitioners. Proactive marketing has also been undertaken. Direct contact was made with many state and federal government departments, organisations and NGOs that are involved in managing pest problems both in Australia and in the Asia-pacific area. All milestones for this objective have been met and delivered.

4 A full report on all individual project milestones is shown below Objective 1. Revise, redevelop and expand the current six diploma level subjects in Strategic Pest Animal Management to provide a full diploma Milestone date Outcome Progress to date 20/02/2010 Submit draft accreditation to Met. Completed. ACT Training Authority 30/04/2010 Revised Diploma approved Met. This course now is a full Diploma level course. 10/05/2010 New subjects incorporated Met into Diploma course Additionally, in response UC, the IA CRC and Industry and Investment NSW approached Agrifood Australia to assist with a detailed assessment of current training and what changes are required for future 20/05/2010 VPC training review critically reviewed and desirable additions incorporated into diploma course and flagged for Graduate Diploma training. Met. The report focussed on the type of training needed rather than the content of training per se. Recommendations regarding distance learning had already been incorporated in to the delivery of the course. 2. Develop a Graduate Diploma in Strategic Pest Animal Management to the offered through the University of Canberra 3. Expand the reach and effectiveness of 1/12/2009 Assistant Professor position advertised 01/03/2010 Suitable applicant appointed and commencement date agreed. Assistant Professor commences 31/03/2010 Draft outline for Graduate Diploma prepared 01/06/2010 Draft Grad Dip approved by Dean of Science 01/03/2010 Terms of reference for marketing plan developed 01/04/2010 Contract to develop Met: Completed Met: Completed Dr Tony Buckmaster appointed to position on contract. Dr Buckmaster Commenced on 8 th February 2010 Met: Completed. Draft outline for a graduate program in Wildlife Management (Invasive Species) prepared and submitted to Discipline and Faculty boards for approval Met. Completed. Graduate Cert approved and incorporated into the courses offered the University in The first intake of students into that course occurred in The Dean of Science approved the development of Masters and Graduate Diploma level courses level courses. Marketing of the courses has been examined in detail. A report compiled by Sascha

5 the Diploma and Graduate Diploma courses through targeted marketing and student enrolments and through the establishment of the diploma as a sustainable educational offering for national training needs in pest management marketing plan let. 01/07/10 Draft marketing plan received 01/08/2010 Role out of marketing plan commenced Groenweg from the IACRC has identified areas for marketing to be directed. The IACRC commissioned survey of the training needs of the NRM and CMA organisations and identified markets from both these reports will be targeted. Additionally the report commissioned through TOCAL on the current state of pest management training will give guidance to the potential markets for the courses, both at diploma and graduate level. A contract for identifying and targeted marketing into the South East Asian region. At the request of the Vertebrate Pests Committee, the IA CRC commissioned a report on the current and future needs for pest animal training. The report noted the parlous state of training at all levels and recommended that the VPC develop a training strategy. In response UC, the IA CRC and Industry and Investment NSW approached Agrifood Australia to assist with a detailed assessment of current training and what changes are required for future training. The results of this review as well as an assessment of training requirements at the post graduate level will be used to develop a comprehensive marketing strategy for the Grad Diploma, coursework MSc and the VET Diploma course in strategic pest management. 01/10/2010 Articles on the courses published in Feral Flyer, training site established on feral.org and IACRC websites 01/12/2010 Significant increase in enrolments for Diploma course and strong interest in Met. Details of the courses are available on the feral.org.au website. Details of the graduate course are available on the University of Canberra Website. Articles regarding the courses have appeared in the IA CRC Feral Flyer. Met. The diploma course has a full complement of students for 2011 with inquiries and

6 Dec 2010 graduate diploma course for 2011 Paper on revised diploma and graduate diploma presented at annual AWMS conference enrolments continuing to increase from the time the course became a full diploma level course.. Substantial interest was shown in the Grad Cert with a number of inquiries being made regarding the content of the course and admission requirements. Similarly a number of inquiries have been received following the presentation at the vertebrate Pest Conference in Sydney Met. A presentation was delivered at the annual AWMS conference. Braysher M, Krebs C, Buckmaster, T. (2010) Three important issues to consider when managing natural resource-based systems A presentation was given at the Australian Vertebrate Pest Conference in June 2011 (Buckmaster T and Braysher M 2011). A further paper was presented at the 25 th Vertebrate Pest Conference in Monterey California. A full manuscript was submitted for peer review and will be published in the proceedings of the conference in due course. (Buckmaster T and Braysher M 2012). 6. Discussion The Vertebrate Pest Committee/IA CRC report into the state of training in pest management is Australia clearly showed the parlous state to which the level of training has been reduced. The report highlighted reduction in both availability and content of pest management training is across all states and territories in Australia. This project resulted in the availability of Australian Qualification Framework accredited training at both a Vocational Diploma level and Graduate level that was accessible Australia wide through the use of on-line delivery methods. In addition, the IA CRC and UC put a compelling case to the relevant skills council, Agrifood Skills Australia, for a comprehensivee review of the pest training packages to bring them into line with the Australian Pest Animal Strategy and the strategic, outcomefocussed approach to pest management. This review has commenced and is due to be completed in late In the current new phase of the IA CRC, significant reources have been committed to assist with the review and to promote the adoption of the revised training packages nationally.

7 The aims and objectives of the project were met or exceeded in all cases. The courses that were developed have met the needs of the students that have been studying them as well as the needs of the industry, government and NGO organisations employing those students. Evaluations of the graduate program by those students that undertook the Graduate Certificate indicate that the program was excellent. 7. Audited statement of total expenditure An audited statement of total expenditure for this project is being prepared and will be forwarded when available. 8. A report of the receipt of other contributions The in-kind contributions from Drs Sarre and Braysher indicated in the original project proposal were provided. Dr Braysher s contribution included leadership of the project, supervision of the Research Associate, guidance in developing the graduate program, rescoping and upgrading the CLM package and on-going active involvement in the review of the CLM competencies. Dr Sarre s in-kind contribution included academic oversight of the development of the graduate project and contributions to the CLM package. 9. Project material and Intellectual Property generated. Project materials generated by this project include the background and basis for the both the CLM and Graduate education programs that have been developed. There are limited physical project materials arising from this project. No intellectual property has been generated. As a result of this project, a revamped and upgraded Vocational Education and Training CLM package is being delivered through the University of Canberra College at the full diploma level. Similarly a Graduate Certificate in Wildlife Management was developed and offered through the University of Canberra. Both programs have produce graduates who are utilising the knowledge they have gained from these programs in their employment. 10. A report on all other assets created or acquired during the period of the project. No physical assets were acquired or created by this project