Improving equity and access... via a farm career?

Globally, we know that if we want to improve career equity, we have to address inherited barriers - i.e. class, age, gender, ableism and ethnicity - in order to level the playing field (Inkson et al., 2015). Aotearoa New Zealand continually aims to level equity of access. School leavers identifying as Māori, Pasifika, male, or from lower decile schools are:

• less likely to leave school with NCEA Level 2 or above, UNLESS they get into trades training (Ministry of Education, 2021);
• have higher rates of NEET (not in education, employment or training) than other ethnicities in 16-24 year old age group, and higher rates of unemployment than Pākehā and Asian groups (Statistics New Zealand, 2023);
• even in paid employment are likely to earn less than Pākehā and Asian groups (Statistics New Zealand, 2023).

As a nation, we need to do more for our young men. I wonder if one way we can't do more is encouraging our urban rangatahi to put farm work back on the table as an option? Not only does this help to solve the labour shortage being felt by our farmers (Groeneveld, 2022; Morrison, 2023), but I think this may have previously been off the table due to a number of factors, but perhaps because their parents see it as 'peasant' work (Commonwealth of Australia, 2006, p. 13). Yet it can get our young men into the workforce, give them some confidence, and buy them some time to think about who they want to become. 

There are many sources of information which we can use to get our urban rangatahi a start on farms, including:

• Growing Future Farmers: offers opportunities to try farm work/living while gaining qualifications. Farmers act as trainers for the trainees, gaining a benefit of extra pair of (farm)hands. This organisation has open days listed on their website. NB: need a restricted licence. https://www.growingfuturefarmers.co.nz/
• Farmer Time. This running for about a year, connecting New Zealand primary schools via virtual meetings to a range of farmers, getting our youngest to ask questions, and getting virtual farm tours via the farmer's digital device. Young learners get farm insights early. https://www.farmertime.co.nz/
• Field Days. Urban school leavers can see the range of rural sector job opportunities through a visits to the annual NZ Agricultural Field Days, if they are located near Hamilton. https://www.fieldays.co.nz/
• Open Farms. Farms open their gates to the public on (this year was March 12th), hosting visitors for the day, who get a taste of what it's like being on farm. This could be a catalyst for a person to consider a job in this type of setting. https://www.openfarms.co.nz/
• Farm Cadetships. There are a number of organisations who run what are effectively apprenticeships on farms, including https://agritraining.co.nz/farm-cadet/, https://www.waipaoa.co.nz/, https://www.pukemiro.co.nz/cadetship, https://tuputoa.org.nz/cadet-programme/, https://smedley.ac.nz/, https://otiwhitistation.co.nz/

I am sure there are more resources, but this will do to start!

Janette, Fiona and Sam

References:

Commonwealth of Australia. (2006). Perspectives on the future of the harvest labour force. Australian Senate Standing Committee on Employment, Workplace Relations and Education. https://www.aph.gov.au/~/media/wopapub/senate/committee/eet_ctte/completed_inquiries/2004_07/contract_labour/report/report_pdf.ashx

Education Counts. (2023a). Fees Free tertiary education. Ministry of Education. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/fees-free

Education Counts. (2023b). Post-compulsory education and training. Ministry of Education. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/post-compulsory-education-and-training.

Farmer Time. (2022). What is Farmer Time?. https://www.farmertime.co.nz/

Groeneveld. R. (21 April 2022). New Zealand’s dairy sector in desperate need of workers. https://www.dairyglobal.net/world-of-dairy/country-focus/new-zealands-dairy-sector-in-desperate-need-of-workers/ 

Inkson, J. H., Dries, N., & Arnold, J. (2015). Understanding Careers (2nd ed.). SAGE Publications Ltd.

Ministry of Education. (2021). School leavers with NCEA Level 2 or above. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/208071/Indicator-NCEA-Level-2-or-Above-2021_FINAL.pdf 

Morrison. T. (1 March 2023). Finding labour 'the hardest it has ever been', and it's about to get worse, report says. Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/131356220/finding-labour-the-hardest-it-has-ever-been-and-its-about-to-get-worse-report-says

Statistics New Zealand. (2023). Earnings for people in paid employment by region, sex, age groups and ethnic groups. https://nzdotstat.stats.govt.nz/wbos/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=TABLECODE7472#

* Janette Ryan and Fiona Windle kindly prepared much of the material for this post