Our Training Philosophy

Although agriculture is a vibrant interesting industry that offers much in the way of opportunity and diversity, the reality is that farming is now a business and to gain employment at all levels future generations will need to be highly skilled, not only in the practical component but in business application as well.

The Waipaoa training model has been developed keeping in mind that our graduates must be familiar with key business components such as, record keeping, forecasting and analysis, human resource management and IT but must be equally as competent at applying traditional practical methods out in the field.

To achieve this balance, theory exercises are designed to express the practical component so cadets are able to apply what they have learned in the lecture room out in the field when working on Waipaoa. Cadets are constantly challenged to think about the purpose of their training, what they stand to gain from a new skill learned and how they can best utilise this skill to improve operation performance and efficiency. This coupled with leadership and team work development has been a winning combination for the training model.