The alliance, bringing together TAFE Tasmania Agriculture (north-west) in Burnie and the NCDEA, means a consolidation of resources around one major centre for dairy education in the state.
 
Australian Dairy Farmers president Allan Burgess said the agreement will help create a “truly national education system that embraces all learning and development within the dairy industry”.

“The real benefit of this system is that it will provide a nationally consistent standard of training endorsed by industry that makes the most efficient use of government and industry resources to meet the needs of individuals, enterprises and industry,” Mr Burgess said.

Tasmania marks the third state with an NCDEA presence since the centre’s inception two years ago.

Dairy Australia’s managing director Mike Ginnivan said the NCDEA offered a unique set of benefits to the industry at a time when decision-making was crucial.

“The industry’s greatest asset is the knowledge and expertise of its people. This partnership will help protect and grow that asset well into the future.”

He said the move was another example of the importance of regional collaboration.

"This is an exciting time for dairy education and training in Australia.
“With each new partnership, the pool of available resources grows. Tasmania’s addition to that base of knowledge and expertise is vital to the continued improvement of dairy education in Australia," Dr Ginnivan said.

DairyTas chairwoman Pam Swain said the collaboration was driven by the local dairy industry and the resulting education system will cater to regional needs at a national, industry-endorsed level. 

"We have a unique dairy industry in Tasmania, one that produced 7 per cent of the nation's milk last year and we are serious about building on our success through education and training," she said.

Existing TAFE Tasmania dairy-farming students will not see any immediate change to their timetables and classes will continue as usual.

Dairy Australia and Goulburn Ovens Institute of TAFE formed the NCDEA in Victoria in late 2005. It is now being rolled out nationally with the goal of positioning dairy education and training under one umbrella.

 For more information contact Sid Pickering on 03 9694 3894 or 0418 175 611 or email This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it