Pest free: Students learning about investigating pests in orchards.
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On May 26, 400 Year 9 and 10 students from across northern Victoria gathered at the University of Melbourne Dookie campus to participate in the annual Food and Fibre Careers Day.
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The event focuses on presenting career pathways in food and fibre production to secondary school students.
Karen Edwards is an organising committee member for the event and a lecturer at the University of Melbourne, and said the event showed how much of a demand there was for more agriculture workers.
“We had 22 different workshops available on the day,” she said.
"We’re getting the students at a time where they’re starting to think about school subjects and having a lot of career talks at school, and we want to plant the seed about how agriculture is a good career option for all kinds of people.
“We wanted this event to be more industry involved, where we have industries engaging with young people so that conversation starts between them and the people that might employ them.
“The agriculture industry are crying out for people and have been for a long time, and I’ve been at the university for 10 years now and the stats are saying that for every university agriculture graduate, there’s five jobs.”
From insect farming to carbon farming or animal health, there was a wide range of career options to choose from for the students.
Here are some contributed pictures from the day.
Farming for the future: An AgriProve team member demonstrating and explaining how soil carbon projects help provide a more resilient farming system.
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Shear perfection: Students watch a shearing demonstration and find out about careers in the wool industry.
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Fruitful experience: Students learn how to identify pests and prevent disease.
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Yay or neigh: Students watch an equine workshop where a Racing Victoria representative talks about horse care.
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Mootivating: Students attend a beef workshop where a local farmer explains what is involved in raising beef cattle.
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