Agriculture training
Melina BATH (Eastern Victoria) (17:55): (305) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Education. We know that modern agriculture in Victoria is a sunrise industry – certainly not a sunset one. It requires a diversity of roles and careers, and it is now time to be on the front foot about educating our future workforce. The action I seek is for the minister to provide a direct funding stream to establish or re-establish agricultural livestock farms, including aquaculture and horticulture facilities, in our state schools or our independent schools to increase participation in the agricultural and horticultural curriculums. We need to get more students in front of classes with real hands-on experience so that they can be paddock-ready to go on to their next stage of learning. We know that Victoria’s agricultural sector is predicted by 2030 to be worth up to $100 billion, and we also know right now that about 30 per cent of our food and beverage sector supplies the nation’s products. We also know that we are home to 25 per cent of farm businesses. But we also know that the farms are getting larger, and where there would have been a natural flow-on of youth coming off the farm and going into the family business, we need to be looking at a diversity of townies as well as farm students to go into this sector.
Workforce shortages are a problem, and we need to be, as I said, on the front foot. During COVID we saw that livestock ag schools, so the normal schools that had animals, were actually shut down and were forced to sell stock. I know that from speaking with Woodleigh secondary college down at Langwarrin South, where the teacher there said she had been breeding her fantastic Angora goats and sheep and the like and had had to actually sell off that genetic stock that they had been breeding for years. This was a simulation – students actually took them to shows and really got engaged in the education system. We also know that in 2022 of the 600 secondary schools in Victoria, only 35 – that is about 6 per cent – offered units 1 and 2 in ag and horticulture at year 11; and 26, about 4 per cent, offered units 3 and 4 in ag and horticulture in year 12. So we need to grow this sector. It is an inspirational sector. There is a diversity of career opportunities, but our schools post COVID and COVID lockdowns, with the sell-off of assets and stock, need to be reinvigorated. That is why I have called for this action from the minister.