To get through the workload Mackay Canegrowers, BSES, AgriServ and the Australian Agricultural College Corporation (AACC) have organised four two-day workshops at the Mackay Showgrounds.

Each workshop will cater for 100 growers and the first was held last week.

At each workshop the subjects are split among 10 trainers and at the end of the two days the participants will have done the theory to qualify for the three Statements of Attainment they need which include:

• RTC3704A the preparation and application of chemicals.
• RTC3401A the recognition and control of weeds.
• RTC3705A the transport, handling and storage of chemicals.

By the time the workshops are completed more than 800 growers will have gone through TAFE accredited courses and with another 178 names on the waiting list, at least another two workshops will need to be held.

Canegrowers Mackay training manager Janice Nelson said the Integrated Weed Management workshops are based on a program developed by Ingham BSES extension officer Ash Benson and Bundaberg's senior weeds agronomist, Barry Callow, early last year, well before the Reef Protection Legislation was passed.

"The program was enhanced in Mackay in conjunction with AACC to ensure the competencies met the Great Barrier Reef Protection legislation and also fully complied with a nationally recognised qualification.

According to AACC commercial training co-ordinator Jillian Condell, AACC has nationally recognised qualifications which enable growers to complete additional competency units and eventually gain a Diploma of Agriculture.

Another way growers can attain the required Reef Protection qualifications is by 'recognition of prior learning', for which they will need to have completed a herbicide storage and application course in the past. They will also need to be able to supply enough records of their chemical use since then to enable a statement of attainment to be issued.

Growers who don't hold the necessary qualifications by July 1 will need to employ a contractor to spray their weeds.