THE REGIONAL manager of employment provider Skillinvest has congratulated the Victorian State Government for its agricultural traineeship program and is calling for funding to be renewed when the program finishes early next year.
Speaking at a meeting of a number of the trainees and State Agriculture Minister Jaala Pulford at Murra Warra, north of Horsham last week Robin Kuhne said the project was a promising means of both providing job opportunities and the agriculture sector with a workforce with adequate skills.
“We’ve been thrilled with how the program has run and it would be a shame for it just to wind up when the funding runs out.”
“The intake of trainees have performed really well, they’ve been a credit to themselves and shown the program really works.”
Skillinvest partnered together with agricultural education provider Longerenong College to implement 20 agricultural traineeships in north western Victoria last year as part of a $547,000 grant from the State Government under its $10 million drought relief program.
Victorian Farmers Federation (VFF) president David Jochinke said the program was a critical part in ensuring there was not a skills shortage in agriculture in the future.
“We’ve seen an increase in the popularity of careers in agriculture in recent years and we need to ensure there are pathways there so young people can get a start in our industry.
“If agriculture continues to grow as predicted we are going to need a lot of workers with skills to fill those gaps.”
Ms Pulford said the traineeships had been good for both the trainees and their employees.
“It has been a good thing for rural Victoria.”
The traineeships saw trainees paired with agricultural businesses, primarily family farming units combined with off-site training, finishing with a Certificate III in Agriculture from Longerenong College.
The government funding provided a subsidy for farmers employing trainees and Skillinvest has handled the administration of employing the trainees, such as human resources, health and safety and payroll.
The trainees say the program has been invaluable.
“It’s been great, I’ve learnt a lot about agriculture since starting eight months ago,” said trainee Nick Clark, working for the Hobbs family at Clear Lake in the Wimmera.
“I knew a little about agriculture before starting, not a lot, but I’ve managed to pick up a lot through the traineeship.”
Gregor Heard
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
Gregor Heard is ACM's national grains industry reporter, based in Horsham, Victoria. He has a wealth of knowledge surrounding the cropping sector through his 15 years in the role. Prior to that he was with the Fairfax network as a reporter with Stock & Land. Some of the major issues he has reported on during his time with the company include the deregulation of the export wheat market, the introduction of genetically modified crops and the fight to protect growers better from grain trader insolvencies. Still involved with the family farm he is passionate about rural Australia and its people and hopes to use his role to act as an advocate for those involved in the grain sector.
