According to New Zealand Aquaculture, the agreement comes after a visit to MTI in June by two officials from the Chilean Ministry of Education, Trinidad Droguett, director of the 'Technicians for Chile' programme and Victor Iribarren the deputy director of the same programme. They were accompanied by Bruno Aldaz, international advisor to the New Zealand Ministry of Education who facilitated the visit.
The Technicians for Chile programme is an initiative to train Chilean graduates at various international locations in the practical aspects of their field with the overall objective being to lift the productivity of selected industry sectors. MTI is the only New Zealand institution chosen to train students in the field of aquaculture.
MTI will deliver their Certificate in Aquatic Studies to the students who will live in Warkworth for the duration of the 44 week programme, with two intakes per year. The Chilean Government has committed to fund up to 20 students per intake. The first students will be arriving in February for the first intake in next year with another cohort arriving for the July intake.
The certificate in Aquatic Studies covers such subjects as, finfish biology, shellfish biology, aquatic microbiology, hatchery management, live food production and aquaculture facility management and is intended to produce graduates with the specialist skills to successfully operate and manage an aquaculture facility. Students will also achieve the New Zealand National Certificate in Aquaculture which is under pined by the Seafood Industry Training Organisation's (SITO) aquaculture unit standards.
Paul Decker, the director of MTI, told New Zealand Aquaculture: "It is an honour for us to be selected against some stiff competition to deliver this programme and a real feather in our cap to be recognised by the Chilean government as a world leading training provider in the field of aquaculture.
"It is also somewhat ironic given the bureaucratic difficulties that MTI has been subjected to by the New Zealand education system over the last year. It seems that we are recognised for excellence in our field internationally but life is still made unnecessarily difficult for us by our own New Zealand system."
