Environment Conference wrap up On the 24th and 25th of August, over 45 meat industry environmental representatives, attended the first national Meat Industry Environmental conference in Adelaide.

The focus for the conference was ‘Energy into the future’ and the scene was set with a keynote address from Mr Michael McDermott, Clean Energy Regulator.

The enthusiasm of the speakers throughout the conference was acknowledged by the delegates as one of the highlights with one delegate commenting “all presentations were highly informative and relevant to the contemporary issues that we currently face in the meat processing and rendering industry”.

Day 1 focused on energy and water savings, waste water treatment processes and optimizing the return from current processes. During the breaks, delegates took full advantage of networking and visiting the excellent exhibits from Steam Systems Pty Ltd and Applied Environmental Solutions. Day 1 was brought to a close with further networking and an excellent dinner and entertainment matched the exceptional company.

It was great to see that all of delegates returned for Day 2. The focus of day 2 was energy and speakers looked at energy recovery and a case study turning waste to energy. Delegates were then taken on a site tour of Coopers Brewery and their cogeneration plant which produces more power than the brewery uses. After such an informative and detailed 2 days delegates were treated with a beer tasting session to bring the conference to a close.

It was a great conference, with excellent speakers, lots of networking and exchanging of ideas. All of the evaluations received indicated that this conference should run again next year especially given the level of investment industry has planned going forward.

MINTRAC would like to thank all the speakers, exhibitors and delegates at the conference and especially the sponsors, whose support was essential for running this conference.

August 2012

MINTRACker Page 2

Peter Gill, Fletcher International Exports WA Pty Ltd and Jamie Warburton, Harvey Industries Group Pty Ltd

Delegates from the first Meat Industry Environment Conference

The conference comes to a close with a nice cold beer.

Page 3 August 2012

Questions or comments? E-mail us at mintrac@mintrac.com.au or call 1800 817 462

Brisbane, 19-20 September 2012

For more information call 02 9819 6699

Meat Inspection & Quality

Assurance Conference

REGISTER NOW!

You are invited to register for this year’s MI&QA

Conference.

The conference is being held in Brisbane at The

Mecure Hotel on the 19-20 September 2012.

The MI&QA Conference provides an important

forum to exchange views, keep updated on

domestic and international developments and

gain greater awareness of the current issues

affecting the meat industry. The conference

offers delegates a chance to network with other

industry associates within, and outside the sector.

Registrations are closing soon!

All prices include GST. For full details

please go to the MINTRAC website

www.mintrac.com.au

Register Now!

Prices

Cost

MINTRAC associate

member (delegate)

$265

Red meat levy payer

(delegate)

$265

General delegate

(2 Day)

$385

General delegate

(1 Day)

$240

Dinner $88

MINTRACker Page 4

Workforce Development Planning project finishes The five workforce development planning workshops for HR Managers, held throughout Australia, have now been completed. Four were funded by AMPC/MLA and the fifth was funded by the WA Food Forestry and Fibre Training Council.

The program was launched in March 2012 with a ‘taster’ presentation at the MINTRAC conference by Wendy Hall from Response Learning.

Conducted over the following months, the workshops included:

an overview of workforce development planning and its importance to the business

explanation and discussion of the processes which underpin workforce development planning

opportunity for workshop participants to align their current practices to the concept of workforce development planning

tools and exemplars to assist participants to undertake analysis of areas such as: workforce demographics and available skills; the identification of labour and skills gaps; job entry, career development and redeployment opportunities

examples of completed workforce development plans

sources of post-workshop information and assistance.

Over forty people attended the workshops, and feedback has been extremely positive. Many people commented that they not only learned new techniques and strategies, but for the more experienced HR Managers it was a welcome opportunity to network, take stock of their own portfolios and revisit some of the theory.

Many of the participants are proceeding with the development of their own workforce development plans, and are participating in webinars in support of the process.

The evaluation responses indicate that most participating companies have embraced the concept of workforce development planning and are now incorporating this as part of their business planning processes.

In addition to this the project has succeeded in creating a much broader industry awareness of the role, function and importance of workforce development planning. The conference presentation certainly started the conversation, and as a direct result of the workshops, several companies have separately contracted Response Learning to provide ongoing support and advice during the development of their plans.

The immediate impact of this project for the industry has been the enabling of meat processing companies to develop workforce development plans which not only align and enhance current

business planning process, but facilitate access to federal and state funding for training.

This project will also have a long-term impact on the Australian Meat Industry. The project directly aligned to Strategic Theme 4, “Our People” of the Meat Industry Strategic Plan 2010-2015, and as such has now equipped those participating companies to consider and address the identified objectives.

Wendy Hall

Page 5 August 2012

Two new LLN projects for 2013 How do you know if a trainee has problems reading and writing?

The Australian Government's Workplace English Language and Literacy (WELL) program has funded

MINTRAC to develop language, literacy and numeracy indicator tools for every qualification in the

MTM11 Training Package.

Indicator tools, also called skills checks or LLN tests, are a set of written questions and tasks for new

trainees which will indicate to trainers where the trainee may have difficulty with aspects of training

and their job. With this information, trainers will be able to intervene and provide support earlier for

trainees. They may also be able to identify a group of trainees or workers who might benefit from a

WELL training program with a specialised LLN trainer.

The need for indicator tools for the meat industry became evident in the LLN for trainer workshops

conducted last year. As all participants discovered, it is far easier to pick holes in a question than to

develop a good one yourself. With this in mind, MINTRAC will be drawing on industry trainers to pick

holes in these tools as the project continues in order to get the questions right. We will also need to

trial the tools with a variety of trainees and apprentices. If you are interested in taking part in the

trials or providing feedback on questions, please email Jodie Hummerston on

jhummerston@mintrac.com.au.

The indicator tools will be sold as editable word documents on CD so that trainers can select

questions relevant to the trainee's training plan. The project will take 12 months to complete, so the

tools should be available for sale by September 2013.

The trick to writing work instructions workers can read

How closely are your work instructions followed by workers? How often do you fear that workers sign

the work instruction without completely understanding it? How much time do your supervisors spend

reading work instructions to workers because they can't read them themselves? If any of these are

issues for you, read on.

MINTRAC has received funding from the Australian Government's Workplace English Language and

Literacy (WELL) program to deliver a series of workshops on writing work instructions in plain English

to help meat processing workers with low level literacy skills read and understand them.

The workshops will be held across the country in February or March next year. The workshop

program will include advice on formatting, fonts, styles, language and grammar. They will also include

information from regulators on what is required in a work instruction and Standard Operating

Procedure (SOP) to comply with regulations and customer requirements.

MINTRAC is currently consulting with DAFF Biosecurity, and other regulators to develop a

standardised model for work instructions and Standard Operating Procedures, which will help

companies ensure they meet auditor's requirements. The next step of the project will be to develop

templates and guidelines which will be made available to all participants in the workshops.

MINTRACker Page 6

The idea for this project came from last year's LLN for trainers workshops. Participants in the

workshops identified that company work instructions have become too complicated for their trainees

to easily read. They felt that if the work instructions could be simplified or formatted differently, it

would be easier to teach trainees how to read and follow them.

It appears that this is an issue across many manufacturing industries and it is likely that the resources

developed under this project may be picked up by a number of non-meat industry organisations.

Workshop dates will be released by November. Watch this space for more information.

Livestock handling course at Yanco During mid July a group of trainers and experienced livestock handlers from Fletchers and G.M. Scott attended a sheep handling course at the picturesque agricultural college at Yanco. The course was led by Boyd Holden, and was part of the Train-the-Trainer program being conducted under the AMPC/ MLA Livestock Handling Project. This was the second such course – an earlier cattle handling course had been held at Tocal, in northern NSW.

Over the two days we were treated to a mix of theory classes and practical sessions, culminating in our ability to move mobs of sheep through the yards and races without sound or physical contact. Most of the participants had worked with stock for many years, and all agreed that they came away with new strategies, knowledge and techniques.

This project is for the development of livestock handling training materials to support the delivery of the Unit AHCLSK205A Handle livestock using basic techniques to abattoir workers as part of an industry initiative to standardise the delivery of training to stock handlers throughout the red meat supply chain.

This project works to develop and implement cross sectoral livestock handling training for red meat processors, with the view of establishing a baseline package that could further be extended to other sectors, including feedlot, transport and production.

The training materials are nearly completed and will be released to RTOs soon. Accompanying DVDs are also under development.

Page 7 August 2012

WIP goes to Jindalee Feedlot

Early in August, the Workforce Innovation Project National Steering Committee donned their boots and headed off to Jindalee feedlot for their first face-to-face meeting.

This meeting provided a timely opportunity to review the project progress, as well as meet some of the course participants first hand and hear their comments.

The Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Training (DIISRTE) operates the Workforce Innovation Program (WIP), which is part of the broader Australian Government approach to workforce development. WIP provides funding for innovative, one-off projects that address workforce skills needs and this project aims to develop an effective, industry-led and accepted delivery system for basic stock handling training and animal welfare at feedlots.

Under the project, MINTRAC is working with Teys and JBS to introduce accredited animal welfare officer and livestock handling training for feedlot staff. So far, both companies have participated in workforce development planning workshops, four Train-the-Trainer workshops have been conducted, and training materials have been developed.

The training covers the whole gamut of animal welfare issues that arise in feedlots including animal health, livestock handling and facilities.

At the Jindalee meeting, members of the Steering Committee met with several employees who had attended training and had the opportunity to hear their views on the content, process and assessment of the program. Overall comments have been extremely positive, with some recommendations for adjustment being considered.

As the program is being implemented with JBS and Teys, the Steering Committee is starting to plan to publicise the results of the program to the wider feedlot industry, RTOs and other stakeholders.

After eight years and over fifty editions of MINTRACker, we are asking for your comments on the content, format and frequency of our electronic magazine. Please take a few minutes to answer our quick survey by clicking onto: www.surveymonkey.com/s/MINTRACker100

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MINTRACker Page 8

Professional development courses MINTRAC is updating the training calendar for the year and , gathering feedback from organisations at Network meetings across Australia. We currently have workshops scheduled including New Supervisor Induction, Internal Auditor and Online HACCP Recertification. Please check our website regularly for any new workshops that become available .

As well as these courses, MINTRAC can arrange plant specific training in areas you require. For

example:

Bobby calf handling

Supervisor training

Meat Hygiene Assessment

Working at heights

HACCP

For more information please contact Alison Kirwan at: akirwan@mintrac.com.au. The following workshops have been scheduled for the coming months. Workshop outlines and registration forms are available on the MINTRAC website. New Supervisor Induction This course will provide attendees with a framework to analyse their own communication style and how this impacts on the people they work with. Self awareness builds confidence in building relationships with managers, peers and team members and leads to a greater degree of self management.

Melbourne – 13-14 September 2012

Internal Auditor

These two-day workshops will give participants the tools to perform an internal audit of the quality system under which they work and accredited training in the unit MTMPS415A Conduct an internal audit of a documented program. Upon successful completion of assessments, participants will be issued with a Statement of Attainment with the following unit of competency – MTMPS415A Conduct an internal audit of a documented program.

Sydney, NSW – 18-19 September 2012 Melbourne, VIC – 25-26 September 2012

Online HACCP Recertification This online course run will provide an update for those who have attended HACCP in the past and wish to update and refresh their skills and knowledge with interpretation. Upon successful completion of assessment participants will be issued a Statement of Attainment from Certificate IV in Meat Processing (MTM40311) - Quality Assurance and Participate in ongoing development and implementation of a HACCP and QA System (MTMPSR413A). Please visit the MINTRAC website at www.mintrac.com.au to download the registration form.

Product update

Page 9 August 2012

New products available:

Animal welfare Officer Skills Set version 3 includes the AWOSS e-learning program

Animal welfare Officer Skills Set elearning program This CD is available as part of the Animal Welfare Officer Skills Set Kit version 3 or as a stand-alone CD.

Core Unit CDs now available in an LMS-compatible(SCORM compliant) format

MTMPS3004A Assessing effective stunning and bleeding – Training and Assessment support materials

Products currently under review/development:

Are there any products in urgent need of updating?

The review and update schedule for 2012-13 is currently being prepared, and your comment are welcome. If you feel any of our products are in urgent need of review and upgrade, please send us an email on mintrac@mintrac.com.au .

Product Review/development action

Environmental Officer Skill Set Kit

Draft kit is now completed – to be refined during trials Due for release December 2012

Waste Water Management Kit Draft kit is completed E-book version under development Due for release December 2012

AHCLSK205A Handle livestock using basic techniques– Training and assessment materials for meat processing

Customised versions for meat processing and feedlots currently under development Due for release by the end of 2012

AHCLSK205A Handle livestock using basic techniques– Training and assessment materials for feedlots

Customised versions for meat processing and feedlots currently under development Due for release by the end of 2012

Animal Welfare Officer Skills Set for Feedlots

Nearing completion

Game Harvesting Kit Development of materials for following two units nearing completion: MTMG303A Receive and inspect wild game carcase from the field; MTMG304A Perform pre-dressing inspection of wild game carcase at a processing plant. Due for release by the end of 2012 Still seeking sponsorship to support further development

Writing effective work instructions

Work instruction templates and guidelines under development No release date set yet

LLN indicator tools for MTM11 Under development No release date set yet

The 2012 Meat Retail Trainers' Conference will be held at North Melbourne Institute of TAFE on the

21st-22nd November 2012

This year's conference program will include presentations on:

An international perspective on meat retailing and training

Aus-Pork's Winning in Retail

Streamlined training packages - what this means for trainers

Changes to the Certificate III in Meat Processing (Retail Butchery) qualifications

MLA update

Update on MLA's ready to eat meat guidelines

There will also be a number of workshops, including:

MSA (an update)

E-marketing for butchers

Assess and address customer preferences

The conference will be hosted by North Melbourne Institute of TAFE and sponsored by MLA and Argus

Realcold and Woolworths.

If you would like more information on the conference, or are interested in sponsoring the conference,

please log onto the mintrac website at www.mintrac.com.au or email Jodie Hummerston at

jhummerston@mintrac.com.au. Please note, Jodie will only be contactable by email during

September.

2012 Meat Retail Trainers' Conference