After taking New Zealand's northern peninsula by storm with its community-focused Level 2 horticulture and agriculture courses, NorthTec is about to tackle a new frontier with the introduction of a Level 2 Certificate in Sustainable Rural Development (SRD).

NorthTec's SRD Level 2 training will get underway in February.  John says it's a natural progression from the groundbreaking Horticulture and Agriculture Level 2 and 3 courses that NorthTec has been running for the past few years.

SRD Level 2 has been confirmed for a number of sites around Northland and on the fringes of Rodney with confirmed sites at Wellsford, Silverdale, Warkworth, Te Hana, Huapai, Coatesville, and possibly Helensville and Great Barrier Island.

SRD Level 2 is not based on unit standards, but can be designed to meet the unique needs and requirements of each group of students, says John Finlayson, NorthTec Programme Leader of Primary Industries.

With around 30 papers developed for SRD Level 2, students will have no shortage of options to choose from.  The many and varied topics include native plant propagation, introductory biodynamics (very organic systems), home herbs and preserves, organic beekeeping, mushroom growing, landscape design, mud brick houses, summer gardening skills, and permaculture.

"We have approval to run those papers this year.   They can all potentially be intertwined, and we can pretty much tailor a course to suit the requirements of the students," says John.

"As an example, the National Certificate in Horticulture and Agriculture teach people how to grow their own produce or rear livestock but once you've done that, what then?  With SRD we can take it a step further... teach them how to smoke, dry, and preserve the meat, or make jams and preserves out of the fruit.  The possibilities are almost endless."

John says many former Horticulture and Agriculture 2 students are keen to do SRD 2, and predicts that many will staircase through to NorthTec SRD Level 5 (currently in development).

"In three and a half years a student can basically stay within NorthTec's Horticulture/ Agriculture/ Sustainable Rural Development system and end up with many wonderful skills that are very practical, relevant, and useful.  These are all quite different courses, but they intermingle very well."

John says NorthTec's ACE (Adult Community Education) courses are also proving popular and form another piece of this burgeoning area.

"Some of our ACE courses have been inundated.  These weekend or very short courses are a really good feeder into our Primary Industries Level 2 programmes . "

John says the ACE courses focus on practical applications, for example, people who are on a town water supply can learn how to harvest rainwater by fitting a water tank and connecting it to their system. 

"SRD, Horticulture and Agriculture are all quite different courses but they intermingle.  For example you might do the low level ACE programme �Step up and Grow', then move into the Certificate in Horticulture Level 2 where you'd learn how to set up a plastic and shade house, and cap it all off with SRD2 then SRD3.  They're all interactive."

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