Southland Girls’ High School’s Keely Gorrie attended a three-day live-in programme with the other year-12 students from around the country to learn about career pathways in the food production industry.
The Farm2Future educational camp, funded by Rabobank, took them to a range of agribusiness operations across the region.
They visited Rakaia Island Dairy Farm, Willisden Farms, Original Foods Baking Company, NZ Merino, PGG Wrightson, Farm Source and Foodstuffs.
For Miss Gorrie, who lives with her family in Invercargill, the camp was an eye-opener for a possible career direction.
She said the business tours were valuable for figuring out what she wanted to do in her working life.
"I’m not off a farm, but I have done a bit of work and looked into the animal — more practical — side of farming, but they had a bunch of information about the agribusiness side of things so it was really interesting to see and have a look."
At this stage another year of school lies ahead of Miss Gorrie before she commits to either studying or joining the workforce.
"I’m definitely thinking about a bunch of things as I enjoy the on-farm working with the animals, but like I say, seeing all of these different career paths in agribusiness is definitely something to consider."
The programme featured a panel discussion of young agribusiness professionals talking about their roles in the sector.
This year’s camp intake was selected from more than 90 year-12 students who put their names forward.
"Original Foods had a quiz which was fun and the lady who we were mainly speaking to talked about how she started on the line and worked her way up and got connections through that, so I thought that was kind of cool."
Watching the manufacturing of donuts and slab cakes and learning about the process of food ingredients produced from farms before that point was educational, she said.
She was selected after making a video explaining why she would be a good candidate for the camp and writing a cover note about herself.
"One of the things I really liked about it was all the people running it and all the people we visited at the different businesses were all very open to the fact you actually don’t have to be off a farm to be involved in the agriculture sector. And I thought that was really quite inclusive."
The programme was organised by Lincoln University students on a Future Leader Scholarship for school-leavers showing high academic and leadership promise.
Rabobank Upper South Island client council member Ed Tapp said the students’ camp experiences would give them valuable insights into how food travelled from farms to the table.
He said the aim was to introduce them to the opportunities and variety of career paths available in the food and agriculture sector.
Many of the students had come from farming backgrounds, but more than half of them had grown up in urban areas with little to no exposure to agriculture.
"There’s a real disconnect between urban youth and knowledge of the opportunities within the agricultural industry. And it’s crucial that we continue efforts to strengthen the urban-rural relationship."
