Qualifications
The RMITO has developed a range of qualifications for people within the retail meat industry.
We offer six National Certificates. Most apprentice butchers work towards a National Certificate in Meat Retailing (Core).
National Certificate in Meat Retailing (Level 4)
This certificate covers all the skills required of a modern meat retailer. The compulsory unit standards recognise the core skills and knowledge required by apprentices in the meat retailing industry.
This covers the skills needed to retail meat products, produce trimmed, sliced, sawn, minced & rolled meat cuts. You will also learn how to produce trays of wrapped and labelled meat cuts suitable for display.
There are a number of optional strands you can also choose to study, including: Boning; Curing Smoking and Smallgoods; and Retailing.
National Certificate in Meat Packing (Level 2)
Packers learn to recognise cuts of meat and how to package it to company specifications or to meet customer needs.
National Certificate in Retail Smallgoods and Curing and Smoking (Level 3)
Curing of meat is undertaken by either putting meat into a brine solution or treating it with one of the smoking methods. You will learn how to make hams, corned beef, and other types of meat products. Making sausages is also part of the key skills for butchers manufacturing smallgoods products.
National Certificate in Boning (Level 4)
Boning describes the process of removing specialist meat cuts (primal cuts) from the carcass or larger meat cuts by using either a knife or machines.
National Certificate in Forecasting, Purchasing and Production (Level 4)
Forecasting, purchasing and production are vital to the success of a business. The person with this certificate can forecast what meat is needed, order the correct product, assess it when it arrives and decide how it is to be cut up and packaged for sale.
National Certificate in Meat Retailing Management (Level 5)
This recognises the skills and knowledge required to manage processing and sales of products in the retail meat business. This is the highest qualification offered by the RMITO for manager within supermarket meat departments and butcher shops.
Training qualification pathway
Training Institutions
There are four recognised training providers to the retail meat industry. The three meat schools of Manukau Institute of Technology, Wellington Institute of Technology and Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology provide block courses to apprentice butchers for the purpose of assessing their practical and theoretical skills to ensure they are competent and able to perform the functions required by the trade. Skills4Work provides distance learning programmes to the retail meat industry with practical skills being assessed by registered assessors in the workplace, whilst the theory components are undertaken by a combination of distance learning, and in two day regional workshops, held twice a year.
Most apprentices will take approximately three years to qualify as a retail butcher. For further information on qualifications please
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