Greg Stanaway of Spectrum International says it is hard to find chefs and food and beverage supervisory staff. "The industry needs to do a lot more training themselves," he says.

An Infometrics report for the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification by the pro-GM Life Sciences Network estimates that 20,000 extra jobs could be created across the economy by 2010 if genetic engineering of plants and animals lifts the rate of increase in farming productivity from its present 2.5 per cent a year to 4 per cent.

Dr William Rolleston, who chairs the network, says the country is short of graduates in molecular biology and bioprocessing, but most universities are beginning to offer such courses.

"The indications are that growth will be in the region of 15 per cent both this year and next year," says director Jim Neill. Mr Neill and executives from three local IT firms are just back from India, where they spoke to more than 600 IT-qualified workers to fill a labour shortage caused by "inadequate" training of New Zealanders.

Craig Parsons of Enterprise Staff Consultants says the biggest shortages are in web design using Java and C++ programming languages, with Java contract programmers commanding pay rates of up to $100 an hour.

But food technologists, who are needed to create new products, are drying up. Professor Ray Winger, head of food technology at Massey University, says Massey's food tech intake has dropped from almost 100 in 1994 to around 40.

John Williams of recruitment agency Lawson Williams says there is growing demand for food technologists in the dairy industry, convenience snackfoods, soft drink companies, ice-cream manufacturers and other food businesses. "The demand is outgrowing the supply."

Josephine Wallis of Geneva Health International says that while there is no shortage of general nurses, it is hard to find nurses for intensive care, operating rooms and dialysis. Psychiatrists, radiologists, rural general practitioners and emergency medicine specialists are also in short supply.

"Total turnover was $640 million, of which $250 million was exports, which is a 300 per cent increase since 1994," says Peter Busfield of the Boating Industries Association. He says the workforce could double to 12,000 by 2010 and establish itself as a permanent symbol of quality New Zealand production. "It's at the BMW/Mercedes end of the industry that we are well known: Swiss watches, French champagne, New Zealand boats."

Only a lack of skilled workers constrains growth. Sensation Yachts managing director Ivan Erceg, says the answer is to retrain people with related skills such as builders, car assemblers and Fisher & Paykel workers. He plans to open a training facility early next year.

Forestry has adopted the new Modern Apprentices scheme, under which young people aged 16 to 21 can complete apprenticeships with a succession of employers if their first employer can't keep them. Forest Industries Training chief executive John Blakey has signed up 70 Modern Apprentices so far and his target is 200 a year.

But agricultural graduates from Massey and Lincoln have dwindled from 240 in 1987 to just under 150. "Whereas farming used to be an art passed down from generation to generation, now it's a science, " says Chris Kelly of the Dairy Board. "Many of these farms are multimillion-dollar businesses and require significant management skills to run them. "We are looking at funding a chair at one or more of the universities, providing scholarships for universities, offering money for post-doctoral work and launching an educational programme at schools to lift the profile of agriculture at school level."

Organic farmers project growth in exports from $60 million to $500 million by 2005. The boom is reversing a decline in horticulture student numbers around the country, with organic horticulture courses now available at Bay of Plenty and Christchurch Polytechnics and by correspondence through the Open Polytechnic.

"Our niche is that we can serve the night shifts of the UK," says his call centres manager, Dr Hanna Frederick. While Britain sleeps, New Zealanders handle calls from customers of British companies around the world.

The industry employed 7730 people last year, and Film NZ chief executive Jane Wrightson believes that number could double in five years. "To achieve that, we would have to achieve a steady influx of the right foreign-based projects - not the small-budget, in-and-out-in-a-week jobs, but some significant-budget feature films and perhaps a tele series or two."

Source — New Zealand Herald 18 November 2000 "Twelve key industries that will propel New Zealand's economic growth" by Simon Collins