School students considering careers in agriculture and primary producers finding skills-gaps in the workforce may benefit from a new agribusiness career pathways cadet program.
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The pilot program aims to put students who have a keen interest in farming and a need for practical on farm-experience in contact with primary producers and others in the rural sector, with a view to possible vocational education pathways.
Rural Business Tasmania chief executive Elizabeth Skirving said school teachers in regional and rural areas had identified a need for such a program, where students interested in agriculture had no way of actually experiencing farms or the rural workforce.
While the program is still in its very early stages it is hoped that farmers and other business across the rural sector will want to get on board to provide basic farm skill and knowledge to young people interested in agriculture to ultimately foster agricultural career pathways.
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"There are less links between the urban and rural and regional communities and it isn't as possible as it used to be to get basic experience or knowledge about farms, so this program is about providing those linkages, providing some training opportunities that allow those career pathways to develop," Mrs Skirving said.
"Hopefully one of the outcomes is that the farmer mentor and the cadet might eventually look at a trainee-ship or apprenticeship, and look at some of the longer term opportunities moving forward, particularly when a cadet has finished school."
Rural Business Tasmania program coordinator Sam Wedgwood said there were two components to the program, including a work experience and a schools-based apprenticeship component.
He said that there is a captive audience of kids in Tasmania who want farm experience but who find it difficult to find primary producers wanting to engage with them.
"We are trying to find people who are interested in giving experience to these school aged students, but qw also want to know how important it is that a student has this experience before they do a school-based apprenticeship"
To be involved contact Sam Wedgwood on: sam.wedgwood@ruralbusinesstasmania.org.au