I had mentioned previously that we employed our first trainee earlier this year – my son Dan.
To me, traineeships are a really great opportunity to get the next generation involved in agriculture. When I left school (yes – we had to avoid dinosaurs on the way to school – 🙂 ), traineeships did not exist. All of my family went away to university or a trade and then, if you were really keen to come back to the farm – then you became a 35 year old apprentice. Alternatively, you left school at year 9 or 10, came back to the farm and worked for ‘sheepdog’ wages (food and board) and 20 years later, not much had changed. And then, if you decided to change careers, you had no qualifications and no assets.
Traineeships allow a young person to get on the job experience, award based pay and a qualification. A great alternative. Agriculture is an exciting, challenging and very worthwhile career. It has a bright future. As far as I’m concerned, if a young person is keen to learn about agriculture – lets not make it harder than it needs to be…
So Dan is returning from Dubbo TAFE today, having completed his first 5 day block release for his traineeship. He will have four more of these as the year progresses. At the end of his time he will get a Certificate III in Rural skills, plus his first aid and Chem Cert certificates. Work he does on the farm is also counted as training to help meet the course requirements.
So if you are interested in rural traineeships have a look at these links….
Cheers,
NeilK