Southland
A new agriculture redeployment programme through the Southern Institute of Technology’s rural campus (Telford), has quickly filled a gap in the rural contracting sector.
The programme was introduced in June in response to the post-lockdown job market, and to help fill employment needs in the rural sector where shortages were predicted.
With the first graduates now out job seeking or having secured work, rural contractors were reaping the benefits of being able to employ people equipped with skills specifically tailored to meet the requirements of their sector.
Te Anau-based Steve James Contracting came on board with the Rural Contractors Programme after an invitation from SIT.
“We got into it early, even though we usually employ locals, we could see there would be a staff shortage with overseas workers not coming,” he said.
He’s had good feedback from his two newest staff, about their time on the rural contractors course, who thought it was excellent, he said.
“Doing Telford has given these guys a chance to upskill – they’ve come out with licences, which are quite expensive, and they’re ready to start on-the-job training with our team,” he said.
New employee Robin Peters has come full circle with agriculture. Having started out in farming as a young man, he’s now back working locally with Steve James Contracting after graduating from the six-week Rural Contractors programme at Telford.
He’s retrained a couple of times throughout his career, being employed in IT, education, the health sector and more recently, in tourism.
For him, signing up seemed the logical thing to do. “I had had some experience with what was going on with my farming background and contractors were looking for jobs (to be filled), so it was a good match in my mind and the course would allow me to update and increase my knowledge,” he said.
Things have certainly changed in farming since the last time he was actively involved in the sector.
Robin said he took the opportunity to increase his knowledge, as well as train for possible job openings in the future.
“There was a considerable difference in size and how things worked compared to what I was working on when I left farming.”
The most rewarding aspect of Telford was coming out at the end of the course having increased his knowledge and skill set.
“The object was always to get to the point where a contractor would find the skills I had learnt useful… in the immediate future, I have a job for the next six to seven months so I intend to make the most of that.”
Telford’s programme manager Debbie Rankin said from their perspective, there have been challenges around getting things up and running in a very tight time frame, but also some significant highlights in the creation of the new programme.
The Rural Contractors course has been formalised into an NZQA approved training scheme so Telford can continue to offer it in the future.
They’ve also recognised many adults may not be able to manage personal situations to attend full time study but can manage shorter block courses, so providing programmes with flexibility was important.