Amy Luckhurst had her OE cut short by covid-19 and arriving home to New Zealand with little prospect of finding a job was daunting.
“I was eight months into my OE, I had toured 26 countries in Europe and was in England operating rollercoasters when my Dad got me home,” she says.
“The UK media seemed to be a lot lower-key about covid than what Dad was telling me and sending me from NZ.
“He just said get on a plane and get home. I did.”
Arriving home to no job and little prospect of finding one was daunting.
“I had no job, no car, I had nothing. I went into full on panic.
“I was applying for 50 jobs a day and I received only one rejection letter, people just didn’t even bother to respond to my applications.
“It was absolutely soul destroying.”
Feeling anxious about her prospects Luckhurst was watching television at a friend’s place and saw an expo on Seven Sharp about work in the primary industries.
“I started searching online for the course when I came across Agri Training’s rural retraining programme.”
Coming from a career in hospitality and with a degree majoring in botany and minoring in physical geography, she did not hold much hope of getting a look in but was blown away.
“I thought nothing can harm me by trying for it.
“I was amazed to get a phone call from them in 24 hours about the training.”
Two days of online Zooms earned Luckhurst a face-to-face interview and her placement in the first iteration of the Mid Canterbury-based Agri Training’s 13-day rural re-training class.
“Talk about thrown in the deep end, I had accommodation and keep sorted for me and it was two weeks of full-on learning.
“I vaguely knew dairy farming, read a few books at Uni, but that was about it as farming was farthest from my mind.”
Luckhurst was hoping the training may lead to work in the high country or orchard work that would make use of her botany degree.
“The only industry I wasn’t interested in working in was dairy, what shocked me was how wrong I was.
“Before I knew it, I had all these potential jobs I could go to, and you know what, I took a job on a dairy farm.”
For the past nine months Luckhurst has been working for Tony and Elle Williams and their family farming company, Willdo, at Leeston.
The 363-hectare property runs 1450 cows over three herds.
“I started in August, straight into calving, it was sink or swim.”
Luckhurst swam well.
“I have always worked with people in hospitality, but I realised you put up with a lot when working with people which you don’t have to when dealing with cows.
“Each (cow) has their own personality, I have one that licks the back of my legs to get attention, another that gently knocks me over when she needs noticing and a couple that won’t come in for milking until they get a cuddle.”
Working through Primary ITO modules Luckhurst is excited to have now secured a full-time three-year apprenticeship.
“Going from living in a terrace house (in England) to this is just not comparable.
“My boss is a full-on champ, very patient and very kind, they took me on knowing I had never even put cups on a cow.
“I have a house, couple of cats for company, a massive vege garden and some chickens.”
Best of all she loves the work.
“I have been here almost 10 months and I am loving it.”
Luckhurst has been impressed to learn how much farmers are doing to mitigate the environmental impact dairy is having and the love they have for their animals.
“The owner and team I work with have so much knowledge and enthusiasm for the industry it would be hard not to be passionate,” Luckhurst says.
Agri Training project manager Trina Moore says Luckhurst’s self-confessed initial negative perception of dairying is one case in many that are emerging from the rural re-train programme.
Preconceived ideas and misconceptions are making people shy away from dairy farming as a career.
Reports of herd mismanagement, negative effects of dairying on the environment and a move to plant-based milk products to support animal welfare and lessen the impacts of farming on the environment are creating negative attitudes towards farming, Moore said.
But they are misconceptions she has seen change in trainees of the Agri Training rural retrain programme.
“We set up the programme when covid-19 hit and we saw restrictions on the borders constraining workers coming from overseas.
“We knew the primary sectors were struggling for workers.”
The programme is designed to introduce people to the primary industries, beginning with an online webinar introducing a mix of information on the primary sector and a handful of soft skills like interview techniques and CV writing.
“Our aim is to get people through the training and out into work.
“We have worked with career changes, school leavers and unemployed people and what has surprised us is that a large group of people are coming through with preconceived ideas and misconceptions about working in the dairy industry.”
“It’s not that we talk it up, it’s that we keep it honest.
“We get people on farm, introduce them to experts and farmers within the different sectors and ask them to roll their sleeves up and give it a try,” Moore said.
The programme includes one year of pastoral care once trainees are placed into work.
The success from the programme speaks for itself.
“Of 257 attendees over our eight rural retrain online webinars and from the 78 people who completed our 13-day live-in rural retrain programme, we have a 96% success rate for finding employment for people who want it.
“The results speak volumes,” Moore says.
