Building skills for tomorrow’s job in agriculture
Attraction and retention of labour across horticulture is a major challenge and to guide today’s youth to take up jobs in the industry, the career-based workshop – the AgTech Elite School Holiday Program – was created.
Thirteen students from Lockyer Valley and Darling Downs schools spent three days (September 28-30) learning all about application of agricultural technology, which was led by UQ Skills at Gatton.
From learning how to apply algorithms, artificial intelligence, designing irrigation systems, the use of drones and machine vision for real world applications on farms, students got a taste of how technology and horticulture come together to form job specialisations.
Additionally, participants discussed past and present technology used on-farm, important for understanding the future trends of AgTech and where they might be able to harness skills into a job and career.
All participants had some interest already in the agriculture industry, so it was an opportunity for them to explore that further, make connections and learn more about where they might want to specialise in – from working on a station to agronomy.
Students also visited the UQ plant and entomology lab, learning about pests and plant diseases.
To finish off students took part in an employability skills workshop using the Farm Ready Program and left with a Certificate of Attendance and a Statement of Attendance in the FarmReady Card training session.
There was a great mix of student interests including beef, equine, horticulture, biology, and science at the workshop.
Students finished the workshop with crucial hands-on experience and skills to continue to develop within the expanding agricultural business and technology industry.
Get in contact with your local QAWN Officer today: www.business.qld.gov.au/industries/farms-fishing-forestry/agriculture/business/workforce
The Queensland Agriculture Workforce Network (QAWN) is an industry-led rural jobs initiative funded by the Queensland Government.
