Summary of report: Mapping of rural industries service providers

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Summary of the report

Mapping of rural industries service providers

A report for the Cooperative Venture For Capacity Building

Kate Roberts, Mark Paine, Ruth Nettle
and
Elvin Ho Roberts Evaluation Pty Ltd Institute of Land and Food Resources, Melbourne University

Publication No. 05/044 Project No. RRE-2A

May 2005

Summary

Background
In 2003 the Cooperative Venture for Capacity Building in Rural Industries (CVCB) identified a lack of research into the background, qualifications, location and professional development needs of service providers in Australia. There was no comprehensive data on the existing level of skills and competencies and no information on what the providers themselves considered would help build their capacity.

This study was commissioned to redress this deficiency. The terms of reference were as follows:

Provide a report on the size and composition of service providers (people providing information, extension, education and training services) to land managers.

Undertake a needs analysis in terms of professional development for service providers.

Recommend appropriate activities in which the CVCB or its members might invest to meet the needs of service providers.

Methodology

The study consisted of three components:

a review of the literature

interviews

an online survey.

Literature review

The literature was reviewed on the professional environment and needs of service providers, particularly current and emerging trends in service provision, both nationally and internationally. The background work of Fulton et al. (2003), which prompted the study, was updated.

As part of identifying providers, relevant websites were analysed. This also yielded names of possible participants for the online survey. A list of contacts was also supplied by the contracting agency, as was other relevant background material.

The literature review was undertaken to support the study generally as well as provide information for the online survey of service providers.

Interviews. Interviews were conducted with extension managers, trainers, academics and other key observers of service provision. The object was to scope the range of the service providers, their skills, professional environment, performance, expectations of their clients and the organisations that they worked for. A range of questions was also developed dealing with location, experience, employment profile, roles and responsibilities, skills, professional environment, inhibitors and job satisfaction. The interviews also looked at trends and challenges to the sector and, from that, identified the needs of the providers.

Online survey. After the interviews, the providers were surveyed. The aim was to reach as many as possible within budgetary and time constraints, so an online format was adopted. To cover the widest scope of potential respondents, members of professional associations, research development groups, as well as community organisations such as Landcare and training bodies, were targeted. The survey was also sent to companies in the private sector.

This indirect means of distributing the survey was in part necessary because of constraints caused by privacy laws. In all, there were 389 responses to the survey.

Main findings from the literature review, interviews and survey An important aim of the study was to provide baseline data on the characteristics of service providers, and in this regard many of the results of the study were unsurprising as the findings were often consistent with the literature or anecdotal evidence. In the area of needs of service providers, there was also reasonably close correlation between the perceptions of those interviewed and those who responded to the online survey. Because of the small population sample, the results must not be interpreted as a perfectly accurate picture of service providers in all industries and sectors. It should also be realised that respondents could select themselves by linking to the website and be selected by their colleagues who forwarded the site link to them.

Overall, the main finding was that the greatest inhibitor encountered by service providers in their professional development is the organisational and external environment. Within the scope of what they do there is a high level of job satisfaction, and broadly service providers believe they have enough skills to do their job, but there is considerable frustration at the constancy of organisational change and a lack of leadership in managing that change. More specifically, the respondents find the high level of project work and the resultant loss of continuity of staff and expertise is a particular burden when trying to achieve change. In short, from the providers’ standpoint it is not so much the nature of the job or their skills that are as crucial as the external factors relating to security and support.

The other general observation that can be made here is that the survey process itself gave an insight into the difficulties in reaching service providers. Some of these difficulties were due to privacy laws, but also relevant was the wide range of professional organisations providers were members of and the varying levels of cooperation from these organisations to forward the survey on to their members. There were also some technical difficulties in downloading the questionnaire because of the capacity of internet facilities of some respondents.

Demographic information of service providers

Industry affiliation. In relation to the industries to which the service providers were attached, the respondents listed 12 industries not specified in the questionnaire. These covered smaller industries including poultry and eggs; cider; deer; kangaroo; food manufacturing and retail; goats; horses; mining; mohair, cashmere and alpaca; sawmilling, sericulture; and tobacco.

A notable feature of the survey was the range of content areas nominated by providers who fell within the "other industries" classification. Here 23 were identified such as: agribusiness; waste management; land use planning; supply chain development; and others of a generalist nature. The complexity of the occupations across industry and generalist work indicates a need for service providers to be multi-skilled. It was also noted that about a third of respondents placed themselves in the natural resource management (NRM) category but care needs to taken in extrapolating that proportion more generally because of the nature of the survey process as discussed above.

Age. There was a reasonable spread of ages in all sectors. Education had the oldest cohort and the community sector and NRM, the youngest. This situation provides a significant opportunity for mentoring or supporting the young as well as for valuing end-of-career people.

Gender. The sample consisted of 37% females and 63% males. When analysed by sector, the proportion of males dominated except in the community category where there were 54% females. The private sector had 29% female and the government 40%. By industry, NRM had the largest proportion of women (40%) and plant industries the lowest (29%). What this means and its implications may warrant further investigation.

Language and culture. Only 1.7% of respondents were from a non-English speaking background and there were no indigenous service providers in the sample. This issue is relevant to the need for cultural awareness training.

Qualifications. Most respondents (76%) identified a bachelor degree as their most relevant qualification. Other formal courses contributed to another 11% and the balance of 13% came from work experience. There were no markedly different qualifications across sectors. Males were marginally more qualified than females.

Career path. Service providers generally engaged in direct service and technical information provision early on in their careers, while designing and developing new programs and projects, managing, evaluation and training did not happen until later on. The career path of men and women followed similar patterns.

When looking at the employment profile, full-time positions dominated (73%). However, there was wide exposure to project work. The most common project types were those longer than 12 months, and these made up one third or more of the work of 69% of respondents.

Accreditation of service providers. Those in favour of accreditation outnumbered those against by almost 4 to 1, however, almost one third of respondents did not express a view.

The practice of service providers
As one would expect, most service providers in this sample had a variety of roles. From the choices provided in the questionnaire, those nominated most often were:

providing a wide range of information

being a facilitator

being a trainer

providing specialist information.

They also mentioned that they were involved with administrative duties, developing strategies and learning packages, and communication. When analysed by sector, it was no surprise that the education sector (including universities) had the greater role in research.

Respondents indicated that most of their time was spent on providing services to groups.

This was followed closely by providing services by telephone or through written material such as reports. Supplying information by fax and through field days, popular forms of communication in the past, are now listed as the least used.

The clients of this sample of respondents were mainly:

individual farmers

groups in the private and public sector

other service providers

members of the community

farm families.

However, listing these five main categories should not minimise the importance of the fact that most service providers in the sample delivered to a range of clients.

The survey showed that the expectations of clients and the service providers’ organisations were generally closely matched. When it came to measuring performance, respondents indicated that client feedback was the most used method. The next most used method was seeing results of their work through changed practices and the third was through formal performance appraisals.

Skills and needs

The most important skills for all service providers are:

communication and networking

adult learning skills and building capacity in others

evaluation skills

participative research and development processes

planning and project management skills

good technical knowledge

business skills

client management skills

problem solving skills

computer literacy.

While there was general agreement on the list above, there was a discrepancy between what service providers said all should have and what they actually needed (see table below).

Skills providers said they should have

Skills providers say they need

Communication skills (including written and verbal, conflict management)

Computer literacy (including internet skills)

Problem solving skills

Networking skills (being able to bring relevant people together)

Knowledge of rural communities

Knowledge of business (including risk management, financial management,

succession planning)

Knowledge of relevant law/regulations

Cross cultural skills.

The skills that were listed as all should have and I need varied little according to age, industry or sector. The results were much the same when service providers were categorised in this way.

When it came to meeting those needs, what was listed as most important was to be part of an organisation that met the requirements of clients, and on-the-job support. Surprisingly, most providers indicated that they were well catered for by their organisations. This applies equally throughout the sectors. All sectors:

provide a career path in the service industry

support new ideas

review activities

have a planned program of activities.

On the negative side, the community, education and government sectors were not as good at focusing on client profitability; and the private sector was not so good at focusing on environmental health.

The four most inhibiting factors were found to be:

lack of continuity between projects

not enough resources for follow up

not enough resources to do a good job

not enough time because of relatively short term projects.

Of the seven inhibitors they could choose from, two related to the effects of project work and both of these were in the top four. Factors such as lack of skills and lack of support from the organisation were not rated highly as inhibitors.

Overall, the results indicated service providers operating in the private sector were most satisfied with their jobs, and providers in the community sector the least satisfied (although they were still satisfied overall).

Recommendations
While respondents indicated a high level of job satisfaction overall, a number of concerns were expressed in response to the open ended survey question which related to the needs of service providers. More than one in four respondents (100 in all) made a general comment, and overwhelmingly those comments raised issues that were negative. Two matters were considered important:

organisational issues a

the need for more coordination and collaboration in extension.

There was a sense of frustration with providers’ organisations to do with the constancy of change, associated in part with the problem of short-term projects, differing cultures (e.g.

service providers were considered second class citizens compared with researchers), lack of time to properly carry out their work, and difficulties with the emphasis on reporting rather than achieving. These issues all raise the question of management and leadership, which were mentioned separately by respondents as important in meeting their professional development needs. The literature review identified a range of structural and organisational issues which are relevant here and which fall broadly under the heading of "management of change".

Given the changes that have occurred in extension and the responses of the service providers to this survey, there is a need for leadership in managing change.

Three main recommendations for the CVCB partners emerged from the information in the report as follows:

Develop a position on extension.

Provide leadership with regard to extension.

Support professional development.

Recommendation 1. Develop a position and policy on extension

Uncertainty over the position of extension and service provision across industries, combined with extension practitioners seeking more security in their position,s requires the CVCB to develop a joint position on extension policy for public, private, education, communication and industry sectors.

Recommendation 2. Provide leadership
The position the CVCB takes with regard to extension leadership may help lessen the insecurity felt by extension personnel as a result of short term projects and the disruptive changes caused by restructuring of government departments.

It may also relieve some of the frustration that was expressed by respondents about the lack of coordination in the field of extension, improve collaboration between the public and private sectors, and bring providers together to learn from each other following the fragmentation of government services.

The CVCB needs to use mechanisms such as forums to foster critical reflection about extension in at least three areas:

stimulating informed discussion about the role of extension in critical issues such as water use and natural resource management

promoting policy debates about extension at a federal level

challenging professional organisations such as the Australasian Pacific Extension

Network, Australian Institute of Agricultural Science and Technology, and the Australian Association of Agricultural Consultants to better represent extension.

Recommendation 3. Foster extension advocates
The CVCB can demonstrate leadership by identifying and working with key senior managers so that it can be in a position to advocate for extension in agricultural and related sectors.

Recommendation 4. Support professional development
Training needs were identified as those basic skills that all advisers need to perform effective extension, and the specific, specialised skills that some advisers need to extend the professionalism of extension. From the survey, the basic preliminary skills are:

communication and networking

computer literacy

problem solving

knowledge of rural communities.

Specialised skills that are needed for extension career development include:

business skills

knowledge of relevant law and regulations

cross cultural skills.

It is recommended that the CVCB invests in systems and practices that support the exchange of skills and experience among service providers. This includes supporting relevant conferences that facilitate communication and networking, e.g. organisations such as APEN.

Such organisations can help overcome the bridge between various sectors and industries and consequently lead to greater integration, co-learning and coordination among all rural service providers.

This group of service providers did not see formal courses as being the most obvious option for meeting their training needs. Rather, they nominated support on the job and to be part of an organisation that met the needs of clients. However, all the options scored well and the scores were not very different.

Recommendation 5. Work with other industries
The valuable work carried out by the CVCB may be lost to those industries not directly or indirectly represented by the partners.

It is recommended that the CVCB consider how the results of their work can reach industries such as mining, tobacco, other animals (e.g. kangaroos, goats and other all exotic animals), other fibres and fleeces (e.g. alpacas, mohair, cashmere, silk, and horse breeding and racing.

Also, how relevant and useful practices in these industries can reach the CVCB should be considered

Recommendation 6. Foster involvement of service providers from indigenous and non English speaking backgrounds
There was a marked lack of involvement by service providers from indigenous and non English speaking backgrounds.

It is recommended that the CVCB discuss the value and effects of recruiting service providers from these backgrounds for their industries and take action to facilitate their employment if this is considered appropriate.

Recommendation 7. Move towards accreditation
In the online survey, 55.5% of service providers supported accreditation, 14.5% opposed it, and 30% did not offer an opinion. The data on the benefits of professional organisations showed a high reliance on industry associations.

It is recommended that the CVCB facilitate the move to accreditation of service providers by supporting the organisations that have begun the process and others who want to be involved, including service provider organisations.

This involvement is considered critical given the disparate views on accreditation, even by those who agree with it in principle. The study shows the form of accreditation will be crucial.

Recommendation 8. Use of information from the study
The database and online survey instrument created for this project will be a valuable resource for the CVCB for future research. It is strongly recommended that a biennial review be carried out to build on current findings and to identify trends and changes.

Links

Last updated: 30 may 2005
Copyright RIRDC
http://www.rirdc.gov.au/reports/HCC/05-044sum.htm