A purpose-built brewing facility is being constructed at Otago Polytechnic’s Bannockburn Road Campus, allowing students to study in Central Otago.
The objective of the programme is to help fill the skills shortage gap in the industry by providing skilled and work ready graduates. The brewery will include a 500 litre brewhouse and three 1,000 litre fermenters, as well as two other storage tanks. In addition, there will be eight smaller trial brew-kits and 16 nano-fermenters, each capable of producing around 40 litres of finished beer.
The brewing facility, which has seen an investment of over $1m NZD to create and fit out, will have space to accommodate 16 to 24 students at any one time.
There will be three New Zealand Certificates in Brewing offered, with the first courses beginning in February 2019. Level 4 is for those people looking to get into the brewing industry, will take one year, full-time. Level 5 is the follow-up from Level 4, allowing students to add to their brewing skills. It is also designed for people with industry experience who are looking to level up. It will take six months. Level 6 will take one year, full time, and is for those who experience in the brewing industry who wish to develop specialised brewing knowledge and skills. Levels 5 and 6 will be able to be studied on-campus or via CapableNZ. There is also a Level 3 programme planned, which will be aimed at homebrewers looking for weekend programmes. This will have an online element.
“No one is offering a suite of brewing qualifications in New Zealand and, as brewing is a booming industry, it seemed an obvious addition to our stable of programmes,” says Tom Jones, brewery operations manager at Central Otago Campus. “We are currently redeveloping our Central campus and our purpose-built brewery will be opening on 1 December 2018.
“The great thing with this suite of programmes is that we plan to offer flexible delivery options making it easier for potential students to engage with these new and exciting study options, while still allowing them the ability to continue to work.”