The campaign is focused on supporting the sector’s goal to attract more New Zealanders to the industry as part of working toward resolving long-term workforce challenges.
DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle says the sector had a great story to tell, including the lifestyle and opportunities, and the campaign provided the chance to showcase the sector.
“We want to attract more Kiwi workers to the sector, where we provide personal and career growth, a lifestyle and a great community,” Mackle said.
The GoDairy programme has a history of recruiting and supporting people into dairy careers, for more than 10 years.
The relaunched campaign is one component of the long-term GoDairy programme and is designed to encourage people to consider a career in dairy and learn about the range of options on offer.
It aims to create awareness of job opportunities in the dairy sector, including the skills people learn, the benefits of working in dairy and what living and working in a rural community is like. Information on the range of career options is available on the redesigned GoDairy website.
“We are concerned about the current situation where many dairy farmers are struggling to employ the staff they need on-farm,” he said.
DairyNZ lead advisor for people Jane Muir says the relaunch had the slogan ‘no ceiling no walls – skills for life’. This set the trend for how it will tackle the industry’s workforce challenges.
It centred around creating awareness of what the opportunities are and letting them learn about dairy at a speed that suited them.
“Let’s let all New Zealanders know and particularly those with a predisposition to want to go dairying. That probably means they like the outdoors and like working with animals – they’re open to living in the regions,” Muir said.
Muir says they will also be focusing heavily on the ‘skills for life’ component of the slogan.
These are skills from other sectors that could be massively beneficial to the dairy industry, such as mechanics and the construction sector. People with problem-solving skills are also a good fit because of the variable nature of the industry.
“Every single day you have to look at what the situation is today and make decisions around how you would best manage that. It’s a skill that’s transferable to a huge number of jobs in the real world,” she said.
She says there are also a lot of skills learnt from dairy farming that are transferable back out into other careers.
“We think that highlighting what those skills are that you learn in dairy and what skills you might have already that you never realised will transfer really well to dairy is a positive way to approach this,” she said.
DairyNZ estimates the current labour shortage for the dairy sector is between 2000 and 4000 people this year.
These numbers are from a combination of data, including job listings and a recent DairyNZ workforce needs survey.
The relaunched GoDairy campaign will not have the Farm Ready Training courses offered in 2020.
Last year, DairyNZ’s Farm Ready Training programme involved delivering training courses to convert newly unemployed into a dairy career.
The new campaign instead aims to create awareness of the job opportunities in dairy and is targeted at attracting young people to the sector.
Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre continues to rollout Farm Ready Training for anyone interested in the on-farm training programme.
