SIT Expo to Assist Job Seekers Find Employment

Southern Institute of Technology (SIT), along with its Agricultural faculty Telford, have collaborated with Agricultural and Forestry industry groups to provide short training courses to allow people who may have lost their employment to quickly retrain for Agricultural and Forestry positions. SIT will be running Agricultural Redeployment Expos on June 10th in Queenstown and June 11th in Te Anau.

The aim of the expos is to assist job seekers, especially from Queenstown Lakes District and the wider Southland area to access employment in the agricultural sector.

With skilled driver shortages looming for Agricultural contractors and significant job losses in hospitality, tourism and retail, SIT saw the need to support newly redundant workers into Agricultural and Forestry jobs with a 6-week training course run in conjunction with industry. Informative expos highlighting
opportunities in the fields of agriculture and forestry and what training involves will be held in Queenstown and Te Anau on 10th and 11 June where the contractors will bring along their highly sophisticated machinery for people to get a taste of the industry opportunities.

SIT Chief Executive, Penny Simmonds says there are great employment opportunities to be found in our incredibly important Agriculture and Forestry industries “The Ag Redeployment Expo is a collaborative effort by SIT/Telford, Rural Contractors NZ, the Southern Rural Workforce Action Group, and Competenz to name a few. We envision the event will bring fresh ideas to those communities who’ve been reliant on tourism for many years and now need to look to a different sector to provide employment opportunities”

“Covid-19 has meant a new focus on our important primary sector industries and the career opportunities in them, and it’s our job to provide accurate information about retraining and help people make that transition into new employment opportunities through upskilling” she said.

The expo will offer details of the Agricultural Contractor Training programme that will be delivered through Telford from mid-June. It will also provide a chance for people to meet contractors, see and discuss some of the work involved, see machinery used in rural contracting, have a go on the tractor and forestry simulators and register interest in training.

SIT’s Telford Campus has a long and trusted tradition in educating and training students in the agricultural sector in NZ. This newly developed training programme will be 6 weeks in length, with intakes starting in June, July and August.

The training will be split into three sections; two weeks at the Telford campus to develop an understanding of an agricultural contractor’s job, two weeks in Invercargill for driver training and the final two weeks in work placement. SIT has applied for funding to make this training available totally free of, tuition, accommodation and travel costs.

Please note: Registrations for the expo are essential to comply with the Level 2 restrictions of a maximum of 100 persons per session.

Queenstown: Wednesday 10th June
Open to public: 9am – 10.30am and 2.pm – 3.30pm
Venue: Rydges Hotel, Lake Esplanade, Queenstown

Te Anau: Thursday 11th June
Open to public: 9am – 10.30am and 2pm – 3.30pm
Venue: Fiordland Events Centre, Luxmore Drive, Te Anau

The expos will be held recognising all Level 2 restrictions, including a 100-person limit at each public session, social distancing, hand sanitising stations and appropriate cleaning measures will be adhered to between each session. SIT and Telford staff as well as contractors will be on hand to answer questions and assist in enrolling.