Growing our diverse skill-set
Agriculture is progressing into a highly mechanised field requiring tertiary skills in science and economics. Employment opportunities are abundant, but the sector is being challenged by a severe skill shortage, Guy Wallace explains.
Growing up in Australia, I’ve witnessed agriculture drift from the public sphere to the periphery – and with it countless jobs and vast opportunities. By highlighting the evolving image of the industry in students’ minds, graduates from a variety of disciplines can reap the rewards of one of our greatest natural resources.
This year Left Right Think-Tank Victoria is researching the agricultural skills-shortage to determine what is causing the decreasing number of agricultural students. When asking why less graduates are taking jobs milking cows and feeding chickens – we are realising the answer is in the misguided question. Australians have been holding onto a romantic yet nevertheless antiquated view of agriculture as a pastoral pastime, when in reality it is progressing into a highly mechanised field requiring tertiary skills in science and economics.
This year my colleagues and I are meeting with countless stakeholders in agribusiness who sooner compare the industry to IT and the stock market than preconceived notions of backbreaking manual labour. Though there is physically intensive work to be done, the structure of agriculture is morphing into a corporatized rather than independent model, offering a greater variety of employment and progression within a stable framework where best practice is easily shared. Whilst ‘big farming’ may not evoke an identity that has long been associated with Australia – it offers a platform for all students to engage with an industry once held exclusively for children of farmers or individuals with enough capital to buy land.
With these new opportunities provided by a burgeoning corporate structure in conjunction with growing demand for Australia’s food in Asia, it is puzzling that the Australian Council of Deans of Agriculture reports 4,000 jobs for only 700 graduates. As research fellows we are discovering this gap is widening due to the image of the industry stagnating in the minds of students. A recent Primary Industries Education Foundation (PIEF) survey reveals that 75 per cent of Australian students believe cotton socks to be an animal product, 45 per cent are not able to identify bananas, bread and cheese with farming and 57 per cent do not link scientific research with farming.
It has become clear that the ever-changing industry of agriculture is not an option in students’ minds, so we are looking at current initiatives to engage pupils with the industry such as PIEF and The Primary Industry Centre for Science Education (PICSE). Taking PICSE’s program which shows students the practical application their science knowledge has in agriculture, we are recommending that broadening the curriculum to encompass business-related subjects will ensure the industry receives the diverse skill-set it so greatly needs. And to follow up this interest sparked by PICSE at a young age, we recommend that eligible agribusinesses receive incentives for hosting tertiary interns, thus encouraging an agricultural career path and complimenting the corporatization of the industry.
With increasing demand for food worldwide and Australia’s regenerative agricultural land, a perfect storm is brewing – it’s just waiting for a new generation.
Guy Wallace is a policy fellow at Left Right Think-Tank’s Victoria Branch.
