Students graduating from tertiary agricultural courses had higher starting salaries and were more likely to be employed in full time jobs, a Melbourne teacher’s seminar has been told.
Rimfire Resources director Nigel Crawley told the Rabobank-Australian Centre for Career Education Food and Fibre conference, there were also more females studying agricultural sciences, than males.
“We now know more than ever, the myth about agriculture is a man’s business, a man’s world, is complete rubbish,” Mr Crawley said. “Ag, from a gender balance point of view, has as many opportunities as other sectors.”
He told the conference enrolments in agricultural courses had jumped from about 940 students in 2012, to about 1500 this year. Rimfire had 200 people a year, going through its graduate program, with 60 per cent coming from a non-agricultural background.
But he said they needed to understand that agriculture was not a nine-to-five job.
“They need to get some exposure to the system, crops aren’t ready to be harvested, between nine and five, Monday to Friday,” Mr Crawley said. He said all agricultural students were now exposed to 12 weeks industry experience, in their final year, which was helping change perceptions. “The average number of ag graduates in full time employment is 82pc, on average they have a 12-15pc higher employment rate, than other graduates.
“For the average graduate, the base salary is just shy of $51,000.”
Panellists spoke about opportunities in agriculture, from marketing, to public relations, economics, agribusiness and agripolitics.
The panellists were PPB Advisory manager Steve Commadeur, dairy farmer Clint Theodore, Animal Medicines Australia policy and communications manager Hollie Baillieu, Sinochem’s Lauren McAloney and Rabobank Warrnambool manager Charlie Galbraith.
