Labour shortages were limiting the forest contracting industry at a time when cutting had ramped up and was set for significant growth over the next 10-20 years.
Members of the leading professional group for loggers were being challenged by the lack of young skilled people available to work in rural areas and the solution was not likely to be importing the people with skills.
A severe lack of good people with the right skills was having a real impact in forest workplaces, Davis said.
“Our industry is no longer about someone on the end of chainsaw.
“The technology of the machines nowadays means often there is no need to even leave the cab and we need a new group of young people coming in with the skill set to work in a modern forestry career.”
Improved prices had ramped up activity and with a lot of wood to be cut there was urgent need to balance a new industry skill set against employee demand.
“The competition is certainly intense out there to attract the brightest talents and forestry is definitely in that competition mix.
“There are some really attractive incentives in forestry at the moment and in parts of the North Island where business is really booming there are guys earning $100,000 a year – yes, they are working hard but the opportunity is there if we can get the tech-savvy workers.”
The industry and the Government needed to look again at how school leavers were being prepared for real employment and work together to improve funding and access to technology skills training, he said.
“Our members have been working closely with some of the really practical technology institutes as we need more people with different skills from those of the past.
“Many more of our logging crews are using mechanised harvesters, providing a great workplace while at the same time making steep-slope forest harvesting safer.”
Forestry employers had successfully led the way with drug-testing regimes for more than 10 years and now the bigger challenge for employers in the forest was recruiting a suitably skilled workforce.
Students and their parents didn’t yet understand that technology skills were now the key to getting good forestry jobs, Davis said.
“We need early risers and hard workers – for highly skilled young people the jobs are there now to run multi-million forest harvesting machines.
“Our industry is New Zealand’s third largest and we’re poised for growth in both logs for export and to local sawmills.
“We really need smart, skilled young people who are not afraid of hard work. The rewards are there for the right people,” Davis said.
