Rural business management training has many aspects in common with training for other small businesses. However, its development and delivery has been different from urban business managers because of the different learning requirements of farm managers and rural people. Successful implementation of rural business management training has involved rural people (the clients), rural organisations and training providers working together to produce acceptable packages which meet their client’s needs. This paper highlights the processes used to develop one successful program in Australia, the Certificate in Rural Office Practice (CROP), and describes what led to the development of the course and how it was delivered and maintained. The paper then describes how similar processes are being used to develop further training programs in rural business management.
