Jess Ryan: Working in agriculture is very rewarding for me because I know I get to play a part in sustaining and growing society.

I was grown into the agriculture industry, always loved it. And as I got older it was something that I always new that I wanted to do. Through high school I worked towards everything ag, and then when I left school, got into farming, learned a heap of new things.

Tom McPherson: My title is Accounts Officer and I currently work at a, uh, Ag Tech startup. I made a connection with someone in the industry and they told me about an opportunity that had opened up, that they were kind of looking for someone to fill, and I was lucky enough to get it.

Adrian Englefield: I loved driving tractors and everything to do with machinery, but that very quickly developed into an interest in plant sciences and botany, but also a passion for extension and the ability to take pieces of information that can support farmers and can support their production systems or even improve their production systems.

Jess Ryan: For my electives in Year 11 and 12 I ended up choosing ag. I did biology, ended up doing multimedia as well, which helped with my computer skills to do now.

Emma Pearson: My school didn’t offer primary industries, so while I was doing my Year 12, I also went to TAFE one day a week and studied my Cert 2 and Cert 3 in agriculture.

Tom McPherson: I study a Bachelor of Science – Agriculture at the University of Sydney. There’s a really good mix of kind of field work, practical work, but also theory.

Joe Kingston: So I left school at Year 10 and then I went studying agriculture at, uh, TAFE NSW. I started off with Certificate 4 and then went onto a Diploma of Agriculture. From there I got to learn all the latest farming techniques.

Dr. Lara Griffin: So most of my students will never, ever work on a farm, outside of doing a little bit of, you know, career work experience type of thing. I am expecting that their jobs could be in agribusiness and management and working with science and technology development, looking at new at new industries, consulting.

I think that the idea that agriculture is digging in the dirt is so far removed from reality now that we have so much automation, we have so many new technologies, particularly in our developed countries. What we need is people who are creating and challenging and want to look at how to do things differently.

Tom McPherson: I think the really great thing about ag is that you can control what you want to get out of it. That the myth of agriculture only being farming is definitely something that comes up a lot. I think I’m a good example of, you know, busting that myth. If you were to put me on a farm I wouldn’t have a clue, I wouldn’t know how to manage that farm, but, it’s about recognising that there are so many other avenues and opportunities in the industry for people that are looking to enter it.

Joe Kingston: Every day is a fun day really, um, that’s the only way I can sum it up, but basically moments that I really enjoy is the end of the day when the sun’s going down. You get to look over your property and your hard work.

Adrian Englefield: From somebody that’s been involved in the agricultural and horticultural sector for nearly 20 years now, my big bit of advice for students out there is that things can change, both for yourself and within the industry. So always be prepared to be flexible, and keep an eye out for those new technologies and new opportunities within any industry.

Tom McPherson: Probably the main piece of advice I would give would be really try to understand what it is, you know, you might be doing in a particular role. You know, some things sound really fancy but when you start them you might find out that you don’t actually enjoy them at all, um, or the other way round, it might sound boring and you really love it. Um, so I think do your research and really figure out what the options are.

Emma Pearson: I really suggest like going to either a TAFE, I also attended TOCAL College. It was absolutely amazing. Gives you hands on experiences in so many different fields of agriculture, that would be the best place to go and really find where your passion is in agriculture.

Jess Ryan: There is just so many gateways within the agricultural industry. It doesn’t matter where you started, it always leads you to somewhere else. It doesn’t matter if you start as tractor operator or a cattle handler or something like that, someone will always see your knowledge and your ability in the agricultural industry and always give you a shot, if you are willing to listen and show that you want to do it, and it will take you places, you’ve just got to be willing to push for it.

David Priem: Good morning everyone, thank you for joining us for our Launch Your Career event. Launch Your Career is a NSW-based industry and government awareness activity that highlights different careers. And today we will be exploring the exciting opportunities associated with agricultural with a focus on AgSTEM the science, technology, engineering and maths associated with agriculture. My name is David Priem, I'm one of the TAFE NSW Industry Innovation specialists for Green Skills and I'm your host for today. We're coming to you live and virtual from quite a number of locations across NSW. Joining us today will be representatives from TAFE NSW, the Education, the Department of Education and a fantastic selection of industry experts. As this event is taking place in a virtual space, I would like to acknowledge that we are all standing on the lands of different nations. TAFE NSW acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land, rivers and sea. We acknowledge and pay our respects to the Elders, past, present and emerging of all nations. Due to the distinct importance of agriculture in our way of life, the NSW Minister for Education, the Honourable Sarah Mitchell MLC has provided an official welcome for us.

The Honourable Sarah Mitchell: Hi everyone, I'm Sarah Mitchell and I'm the NSW Minister for Education and Early Learning. I'm so pleased to welcome you to the Launch Your Career in AgSTEM webinar hosted by the Department of Education and TAFE. Growing up in regional NSW myself and now raising my children in regional NSW, I've seen first-hand how the agriculture industry has transformed.

The Australian Industry and Skills Committee projects an increase of over 50,000 jobs in the agriculture sector by 2025. With agriculture accounting for 55% of Australia's land use, we need to get smarter about the way we use new technology to drive the industry. The opportunities in the agricultural industry using technological innovations will only continue to grow, which is why it's important to stay informed about the opportunities that are available to you whilst you're planning your future careers.

Over the next 45 minutes, you will hear directly from industry experts about career opportunities in the agricultural science and technology sector as it applies to food production such as grain growing, horticulture and livestock. You'll also learn about pathways into employment or future training, including vocational education and training pathways.

Communication, planning and technology skills are some of the most important skills for careers in the AgSTEM industry. The top occupations currently in demand are mixed crop and livestock farm workers. There is currently a shortage of agricultural workers in Australia resulting from international border closures due to COVID-19, but the easing of restrictions and strategies to attract and upskill new industry workers through vocational education and training will help our potential workers become job ready.

I really hope that you are inspired by today's speakers and I encourage you to explore the many opportunities available to gain skills and experience in the AgSTEM industry. There are so many options for you to consider, including taking up a vocational education course in Year 11 and 12 in primary industries, participating in TAFE NSW's virtual Horticulture Launchpad course.

You could sign up as a school-based apprentice or a trainee, seek out work experience opportunities or even just take the time to investigate higher education courses on offer after leaving school. I hope that today you enjoy hearing from employers, industry experts and TAFE NSW and take the opportunity to ask lots of questions.

Enjoy the webinar.

David Priem: All right. Thank you to Minister Mitchell for taking the time to provide your thoughts. I'm sure you are all familiar with the Zoom meetings and the Q&A function, so feel free to post questions in the Q&A as we go through the presentation today.

This meeting will be recorded and made available on DART Learning after this presentation. So what does a career in the AgSTEM industry look like? We think the best way is to show you.

Over the last month we have been speaking to a range of industry professionals past TAFE to allow students and school teachers to hear their stories about how and why they are working in this crucial and increasingly exciting industry. Here's a short video giving you a snapshot of various pathways and careers and extent.

[Pre-recorded highlight video - see section above]

David Priem: Well, some great stories and advice there to provide. Excuse me. To provide a general overview of the AgSTEM industry and a look into the future of AgSTEM and AgTech, we are fortunate to have Michael Beer, the General Manager of Business Development with AgriFutures Australia, the body supporting the development of new and emerging agriculture industries for Australia. Thanks Michael.

Michael Beer- General Manager of Business Development with AgriFutures Australia: Good morning everyone. Yes, my name is Michael Beer and I work for AgriFutures Australia. I'm a research corporation based in Wagga in New South Wales and I come to you today from Wiradjuri Country. I welcome the opportunity to address aspects of science and technology that are driving the skills need for Australian agriculture.

So we're here today to talk about STEM. Australian agriculture includes all the disciplines of STEM from a science perspective, the research that underpins the disciplines or the major advances in production for agriculture technology. We are part of the technology revolution and we've moved in agriculture to incorporate a lot of new age technology, current technologies such as Industry 4.0, the Internet of Things, a whole range of new opportunities in terms of engineering.

New engineering solutions as you see in this slide, are delivering automation for labour saving, conducting those repetitive tasks involved in agriculture. They're assisting in the biological and also the synthetic areas as we design new solutions.

In terms of mathematics, data analytics are becoming an increasing area of focus within agriculture and those skills around computation for artificial intelligence and providing real-time information at the farm level as well as being predictive, looking ahead to the future and trying to get ahead of challenges like the shifting in weather and climate. Just as an overview, we deal in a very large and complex industry.

Australian agriculture has a strong ground in New South Wales but nationally we have over 85,000 farms and these are predominantly small to medium family operations. As farm succession in the next generation moving to management control, we see that resulting in a new set of people skills coming to agriculture and often also taking a new approach to adopting technology.

Agriculture employs over 300,000 people and as the Minister rightly said, at the moment there are a number of pressures around labour force and we're certainly encouraging more people to join our industry. Global impacts such as COVID have changed the itinerant and foreign workforce that supports our agricultural industry currently under these shortages are not just specific to agriculture, but across the workforce.

And finally, the National Farmers’ Federation goal for the year 2030, which is really not too far away is to reach a production target exceeding $100 billion. And the industry is making great progress. Last year, a strong season in a number of key industries like grains and livestock, we recorded 80 billion. So those signals for agriculture of above average growth mean that we've got to continue to think creatively and we've got to work with innovation.

As I mentioned, technology in agriculture is part of the day-to-day. Agriculture is experiencing these high levels of growth in technology and one in three farms that claim to be adopting new technology on an annual basis. Automation using robotics for broadacre cropping as an example. We control being more connected with communication networks in the Internet and that includes the ability to link up with new sensor equipment both in soil water and temperature and particularly around advanced data analytics.

The slide earlier there around soil testing, we are now getting quite advanced in terms of keeping strong records around things like soil carbon on a national basis in terms of applying highly relevant technology and incorporating best practise science that is very much a day to day practise in agriculture. An example, the recent disease outbreak of Varroa destructor mite in honeybee colonies in New South Wales is seeing a world first development of a hormone based pesticide to address that particular disease threat.

Quickly turning our attention to building skills and knowledge and very much the focus of today, education has a key role in training and demonstrating technology and in terms of AgriFutures, we have a strong relationship with both farmer groups and schools engaging in the uptake of technology. We run scholarship programmes like the Horizon Scholarship programme for tertiary education scholars.

The final point I'd make around global innovation is Australia is part of an international community and in terms of global innovation, these are also delivering the advances that we need in the sector. And being part of a global ecosystem means that we're connecting with a range of entrepreneurs and startup companies that are key players in both adopting and inventing smart technologies.

At AgriFutures, we constantly keep an eye on the future horizon. What are the trends, what are the challenges, What are the opportunities for agriculture? There are emerging trends in agriculture predicted for the next decade that signal a requirement for a new skill, for new skills and a new toolkit for our workforce. Terms of digital that's both for information computing and applied technology in the communication area, and particularly addressing things like misinformation or disinformation in food and fibre production. Strong skills around communication and marketing. The development of new renewable energy sources to replace fossil fuels, incorporating biomass for bioenergy, biogas production, biofuels and solar. In terms of addressing climate change, industries are adapting to prove weather forecasting and prediction of extreme events and providing tools for selective industries. Bias by season and by region. And finally an emerging area of interest particularly for AgriFutures around bioengineering, new methods for biopesticides that are complementary to the environment, genetically modified organisms and the role that they play and biocontrol agents for pests and weeds.

Finally, AgriFutures is a future-focused organisation and recent work that we've conducted in around the workforce of the future. What's interesting to observe that new employees to the industry rely on a contact and introduction to enter agriculture. And we had some of the previous video cover off on how some of those people came to enter into to agriculture. We know that once people enter into the industry that they want to remain in agriculture as a career and roughly 2/3 of people that come in into the industry stay for a long period of time, over 10 years.

In terms of the mix of skills required to the to address those needs of the future. We have programmes that AgriFutures involved in key growth areas around new industries and we see first-hand requirement for a new and different skill set both to fit and address the needs of those industries, but also see a changing skill set over time.

Finally, to wrap up, we're involved in a number of programmes such as AgCAREERSTART with National Farmers’ Federation, and we see the real need to invest in the future through bringing, introducing and bringing people into agriculture. Thanks for your time today and I'll hand back to David.

David Priem: Thank you for those insights.

I think myself in terms of the approach to whether I might in these. So thanks for that. But so the next part of the event is a industry panel and they've kind of agreed to join us to talk about career paths and the future of AgSTEM as they see it.

The panel will run it for about 18 minutes followed by TAFE NSW presentation. Then we will have AQ and a session at the end. So any questions that you have, please type them into the Q&A part of Zoom as we go. I have with me Tegan, Adrian, Laura, Tom, Scott and Luciano, and I want to start with Tegan from the Grains Research and Development Corporation.

Hi Tegan, can you please tell us what inspired you to pursue a career in agriculture? What your role is in the grains industry? And what are some of the exciting innovations being deployed by the industry? Thanks.

Tegan Slade - Grains Research and Development Corporation: Good morning. Thanks for having me. So start off, how did I get into the grains industry? I was born and raised on a cropping and sheep property in central NSW. So I come from a long line of farmers. And it just so happened that I wasn't on my radar as a career, to be perfectly honest. I actually started a university degree in health, but I was at uni and after two years I discovered, hey, these AG guys are having a lot more fun than I am. So I just so happened to have fallen in with grains. I've now been in the industry for 10 years or so. So it's been an absolute delight. GRDC Our role in the industry is to invest grower levies into research, development and extension programmes that are create great profitability for Australian grain growers. So we invest in projects that deliver, for example, new and improved varieties, farming practises and new technologies as well as we invest in people. So we want to build skills in the industry, whether that be extension officers, farmers or scientists, researchers. Some very exciting things that we're doing currently is we're utilising satellites and drones to improve how growers make on-farm decisions. We're also looking and supporting apps robotics on-farm, so self-driving tractors. There's a farmer from central QLD that's developed his own tractor that's very exciting. So he's using that to do spraying. It's incredibly exciting to see as well as we're supporting researchers to go internationally to develop their skills to assist grain growers. So we've got a linkage with Bayer Agricultural Chemical for herbicide resistant weeds. So we've got Australian researchers over there focusing on, you know, how to help Australian growers managing herbicide-resistant weeds. So yeah, very good.

David Priem: Right. Thanks Tegan. Thanks for sharing your story. If I can move to Laura. Laura, can you please describe your pathway into agriculture, your role in the meat industry, and the way in which technology and innovation is changing, the way livestock can meet is being produced? Thanks. Thanks, David, and thanks everyone for jumping on today. So I grew up in the Hunter Valley just on a small cattle and horse property, and I really loved AG and science at school. After finishing school I went to UNE and did a Bachelor of Rural Science and that put me in pretty good stead to head out and into the extension space.

Laura Garland, Meat and Livestock Australia: So I worked for the Department of Primary Industries in Victoria for around five years. I'm working with predominantly sheep and beef producers before starting my role at Meat and Livestock Australia. What I currently do in Meat and Livestock Australia is I work in the Meat Standards Australia team, so we have developed the national grading system in which beef and sheep carcasses can be graded and segregated on eating quality. So there's some pretty exciting technologies that happen in that production and processing space that MLA invests in, very similar to what Tegan was saying around GRDC. We are a service body for the red meat and livestock industries. So we use both funding from the Australian government and also producer levies to invest in research, development and adoption and extension in projects that have an impact all the way through our beef and sheep and goat meat supply chains.

Some of the exciting things that we're working on at the moment is around objective carcass measurement, so being able to use near infrared sort of probes and needles to measure fat and muscle percentages within carcasses to inform degrading outcomes. And then also a large proportion of work is being done in the automation space as well in the processing industry. So being able to minimise the amount of manual labour that's required in the boning and processing floors and then being able to use X-ray technologies and automatic cut lines to basically make breaking down bodies both safer for workers and improve the value of the cuts that we harvest out of the carcass.

David Priem: Very good now. Thanks Laura. Look, it was more to a story than you ever realised, but we'll move on to Adrian. Adrian featured in our earlier video. But Adrian, you work for a business called Hort Innovation as a regional extension manager covering much of this as wells. But how did you come to be involved in horticulture? What does an extension manager do? And how is AgTech changing how fruits and vegetables are being produced? Thanks.

Adrian Englefield, Hort Innovation: Thanks for the question, David, and hello to everybody out there. First of all, I came to be involved in horticulture through growing up on my family's vineyard surrounded by other grape, citrus, almond, and vegetable farms from a very young age. I absolutely love being outside and being on the farm, riding on tractors, on trucks, learning new skills such as welding and pruning grapevines, all while helping out during the school holidays. Horticulture is a rewarding career and one I continue to be excited about every day. There are so many industries and opportunities.

At Hort Innovation we work with 37 different industries from across Australia investing in research, development, extension, trade and marketing projects. But you might be wondering what an extension Manager does. Now I may be a little bit biassed here, but an extension manager has the best role within any research and development project. Extension is a process of fast tracking adoption of research to assist farmers with their decision making, uptake of new technologies and new farming practises. So extensionist works, Sorry, Extensionist work with farmers, consultants, agronomist and other stakeholders to understand grower challenges, opportunities while providing research information to industry through various methods including workshops, demonstration sites, webinars and farm visits.

And finally, I want to point out that there are some really exciting developments in the horticultural AgTech space. As that has been previously mentioned during this webinar already, there are many career opportunities that exist, so there's a bright future for anyone looking to build their career in this space. Some examples in the horticultural sector include driverless tractors, which includes converting current tractors to driverless capability, robotic fruit pickers that can also scan and sort fruit for quality parameters and replace the requirement to have people walk up and down ladders to pick fruit. And one that I think is really cool, the development of new fruit, nut and vegetable varieties. For example, the development of white strawberries that taste a little bit like pineapples and there's grapes that taste a little bit like fairy floss. So keep an eye out for these in the supermarket. Thanks, David.

David Priem: Oh, thanks so much for Adrian. Moving up to Tom now though, you mentioned Tom in the highlight video that you have started a pathway into agriculture even though you were brought up in the city. Can you please tell us the reason why you believe that agriculture provides a future for you, the training and study you are undertaking and the top of AgTech work you are wanting to play a part in. Thanks.

Tom McPherson: Yeah, Thanks, David, and good morning, everyone. So I think for me, why AG has a future for me is it really comes down to the diversity of options. I think when I think about agriculture, I don't necessarily think of it involving just one discipline. I see it as a number of different disciplines and skills contributing to putting food on everyone's plates and doing that in a sustainable way. And this obviously includes things like primary production science and technology, but also includes things like economics and legal issues. So there are so many opportunities to be involved. And I think that's the reason I'll always be involved in AG is that no matter how my skills or interests might change, there's always going to be an opportunity for me to be able to make that impact in terms of training and study that I'm undertaking.

I currently study Bachelor of Agricultural Science at University of Sydney and I'm fortunate enough to also be involved through that with the Horizon Scholarship programme that Michael mentioned earlier through AgriFutures couldn't speak more highly of that programme either. I've also had the opportunity to be involved with a few short TAFE courses and I guess I see these as a really great opportunity to pick up additional skills that can help me in my career in terms of the AgTech work that I'm wanting to be involved with. And I guess this probably speaks to the diversity of opportunity just in the AgTech industry alone is my real passion is, is around not the creation and research around these technologies, but actually their adoption. So figuring out how you know, what's what might stop a producer from adopting a technology, but also what might, you know, what a producer might see a techno see in a technology and go, wow, that, that's fantastic. I need to give that a try. It could change, change everything for me. So yeah, that's it.

David Priem: All right. Great. Thanks, Tom. Yeah, love your story. Thanks for sharing. Scott, if we move this to yourself, you're the farm, you are a farmer and STEM coordinator for Department of Education. But how does that influence programmes and schools? And what are you seeing in the future of ex STEM and agriculture and space? Thanks.

Dr Scott Sleap, Department of Education STEM Coordinator: Thanks, David. Coming to you from on a rural land in the Hunter Valley today, not the International Space Station which we'll get into later. But yeah, my family manages a multi generational farm in the Hunter region. My children will be the 5th generation to be on that. And that's had a really big influence on me as I've grown up and worked in agriculture and in the education sectors. And in fact it's influenced me in the work that I do.

I manage the STEM Industry Schools Partnerships programme for the NSW Department of Education, a programme that is actually comes out of Parramatta State Office. But I'm based in the Hunter and we developed a programme of that goes into academies of STEM excellence, which focus on regional, rural and remote areas of NSW. So a big influence there and particularly in the curriculum area that we've been working on, we've developed new courses in the STEM fields and there's a big emphasis for us in Agri STEM because that's where the majority of our customers are.

So Agri STEM looks at the next generation of developing young people who are going to have those skill sets that are going to be the innovators of tomorrow. So what's the future? Well, we have a world’s population is going to grow up at 2 billion in the next 30 years. That's 9.7 billion people we have to feed. That's going to require about a 50, sorry, a 60% increase in food production. And if we do that in the same way as we're doing right now, it's going to have a major effect on our natural environment. And if you consider that third, to generate just three centimetres of topsoil takes about 1000 years. The current rate of degradation is going to mean that we may not have topsoil in the next 60 years. So on the positive side, where's the future going?

Our STEM professionals and the young people, the people in this webinar today are going to be the future. They're going to solve these problems and that's want to move into sort of where I'm working at the moment and hence the International Space Station behind me. We're working with NASA, the Australian Space Agency and many other organisations in looking at agriculture in space. The Artemis programme is looking at sending people to the moon and Mars in this generation, in this decade. We don't have the skills to do that at the moment because we can't feed our, our, the astronauts. So we're looking at programmes in which we can develop food using the space industry. So the Xcel STEM Lab programme that is currently in operation is putting experiments on the International Space Station. There's looking at food production in areas like using lucerne to remove CO2 from the atmosphere, using Clover to put nitrogen in the soil. And there was a big thing about growing chilies recently, if anyone saw that, which was quite interesting. But in the next two years our young people are going to develop experiments that are going to go on the ISS that are going to be looking at food production. So the future is bright with our young people. Thanks, David.

David Priem: Right. Thanks very much, Scott. Thanks for raising our gaze. In terms of agriculture, Luciano, how did you become involved with the Primary Industries Education Foundation and what opportunities does the foundation provide for those considering a gap here in agriculture? Thanks.

Luciano Mesiti, CEO, Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia: Thanks, David. I grew up on a farm, a vegetable cut flower farm in Western Sydney and went to university and, and did agriculture and horticulture courses. And I was a high school teacher as well toward agriculture. And I've been the CEO of Primary Industries Education Foundation for about two years. And I'm very passionate about young people knowing about where their food comes from and about all the amazing careers in, in agriculture.

So Primary Industries Education Foundation has a range of different programmes, but specifically in regards to careers and AgSTEM, as already mentioned, we are also involved in the AgCAREERSTART programme which is a collaboration between National Farmers’ Federation, AgriFutures. It's a gap year programme and if you're in year 12, this is a perfect programme for you. It's a 10 to 12 month gap year programme on a farm and applications are now open for that and you will be provided with a full award wage and the training as well to go with that, which is pretty exciting. And you get to choose the location and the industry where you'd like to work in. And agcareerstart.com.au is the website where you can go to get that information & up. If you are interested at Primary Industries Education Foundation, we also have a career website called Career Harvest. And careerharvest.com.au is our main portal with lots of information about different careers in agriculture, scholarships, day in the life of videos, lots of careers information and resources for your teachers as well. And also jobs boards and information about different careers.

Another fantastic programme is offered by the NSW Department of Primary Industries. It's called the Agricultural Pathways Programme and it's a two year programme working with the, the, the Department of Primary Industries farm research facilities. That's a fantastic opportunity. So that's the Agricultural Pathways programme, but they're all these exciting opportunities available for young people interested in careers in agriculture.

David Priem: Thanks so much Luciano and also to the panel for their exciting stories. Very interesting times for us ahead. I'm now going to move to the TAFE NSW session. There's a couple of minutes on the agriculture related training options at TAFE NSW. Take it away. Robin and Craig, thanks.

Craig Conway, Team Leader Agribusiness North Region, TAFE NSW: But we've just heard so much and so, so much information and really exciting pieces in this space. What TAFE courses can students participate in as a part of their HSC?

Robyn Campbell, Assurance Officer, Educational Control and Implementation, TAFE NSW: Yeah, it's a really good question because students can actually start this career while they are at school. They can study vocational education and training or VET courses. It's commonly known as part of their HSC. Some schools may offer primary industries courses, but if not, students can access this as a TVET course when it includes the qualifications for Certificate II Horticulture or Certificate II or Certificate III in Agriculture gives the students a really good opportunity to gain a nationally recognised qualification and their HSC at the same time. The courses also include a work placement component, so that means they're not only learning in the classroom but they're also gaining really valuable industry experience in a work environment. The courses are available, it's face to face. There's blended the school holiday block programmes so depending on where students are located there's lots of opportunities for them to get into those courses.

There's also school-based traineeships in the primary industries area, so students attend school paid work and study their VET course in agricultural horticulture at the same time, so they get paid to while they're learning and put skills in practise in a real work environment. The students should speak to their school Careers Adviser who can discuss all of the options available to them, and visiting the careers expos and TAFE NSW open days can also put them in touch with people that can help.

Craig Conway: Wow, so actually, so once the students are undertaking this, can you explain how these courses will actually contribute to the HSC, please?

Robyn Campbell: Yeah. So when kids are doing their subject selections for their year 11 and 12, they're looking at the unit credit that they get for their HSC. So all of the courses, whether it's done as a TVET or an school-based course, will contribute to the HSC and can also contribute to their ATAR. But they'll get 4 HSC unit credits for the Cert 2qualifications, and they can get up to 6 unit credit for the Certificate 3 and AG depending on what electives are chosen.

Craig Conway: It's awesome.

Robyn Campbell: It is it's really good for them. So you know, if students are doing these courses as part of their HSC, what employment opportunities would there be available to them post school?

Craig Conway: No Gosh, we've just heard from Laura and Tegan and Tom, Adrian, their possibilities are endless. So whether you want to be really hands on and, and down amongst all part of the data collation and analysis. And then you know, as Dr Scott was just referring to there like all of the future advancements that we're, we're looking at doing and how we can increase our, our production and production levels without trashing the environment. So there are lots of different opportunities for employment.

Robyn Campbell: Yeah the technology is really advancing in the area and, and students will be learning all about those advances while they're studying with us.

Craig Conway: Yeah, we've seen heaps of that this morning. But probably one of the most exciting places I've been recently is a robotic dairy. And it was just really exciting to see the cows come in and there's so much after spending some time on a conventional dairy in my younger years, to see them move through this robotic dairy was really calming. And the yields are significantly higher as well. So there's animal welfare issues plus a higher rate in production. So yeah, lots of excite, exciting science based, driverless everything.

Robyn Campbell: It is great. So if students are wanting to do further study and keep up with those advances, what are the course opportunities and the pathways for them?

Craig Conway: Yeah, there's, there's plenty there through TAFE. And you also heard about Tokyo Level 4. So students can progress through either a horticulture stream and progress for Certificate II or Certificate 3 or even a diploma for horticulture. You could go down an agricultural path as well and progress through those same types of certificates and hopefully onto university. And there's also a piece in and around that uses some of these technologies in the conservation of ecosystem management space as well. So there's career paths and courses through TAFE that students can complete through that and some real path, genuine pathways there.

Robyn Campbell: Thanks. OK, thanks David.

David Priem: Very good. Thanks guys. Thanks for those insights to TAFE as well as options. Robyn and Craig, For more information, go to tafensw.edu.au and search for agriculture courses.

Now we now move on to the Q&A session. And so there's a few questions there. Now Lani, my colleague is monitoring those questions and maybe rather than I think there's a few that maybe have already a person associated with a response of Lani, if you wouldn't mind, maybe even just a direct question to those panellists considering the time constraint we have now.

Lani Houston, Industry Innovation Specialist, TAFE NSW: Sorry, certainly David this. Yeah, there have been some responses, but I thought this was a question that came in that was I think would be an interest and perhaps response from a couple of the panel members is what is perhaps some of the common subjects of interest or areas that would align with AgSTEM. So I guess the students are perhaps that are at school already what are some of the actual subjects they may look at doing that would align with AgSTEM.

Dr Scott Sleap: Yeah, I can, I can jump in there. I mentioned about the iSTEM integrated STEM curriculum, which is one of the new Department of Education approved electives. So if you look up iSTEM and Google it, you'll find information at the department site. It was specifically designed to deliver agricultural STEM. So there's an elective that's very specific to that. We've worked with Department of Primary Industries and Blichiano and look down the road from me is, is Tocal College. There's a already a unit done for yabbies and looking at some automation systems there and there's some new learning sequences or programmes that are going to be delivered in the next couple of months specifically to help teachers to deliver that. It's an elective subject in Stage 5, which is Year 9 and Year 10, but it is specifically looking at those sort of technologies that have been discussed here today. There's also other varieties which I mentioned, the Excel, a programme in space, but also robotics, drones and that sort of technology that we'll look at as applied to agriculture.

David Priem: Thanks, Scott. Now, Lani there's another question or two I think which might be directed to one or two of the panellists.

Lani Houston: Yes, there are there. It was 1 here. I guess that one that everyone's always interested in what's the, and this is directed at Adrian, what's or perhaps some of the other panel members could provide a response to. But what's the I guess the pay like for some of the roles and it would vary, but that just perhaps to for some of the panel members to give a bit of an indication of how that what they, what that might be and how that would be determined.

Adrian Englefield: Yeah, thank you. Thank you for the question. First of all, I can say that extension is an extraordinary, extraordinarily rewarding career and one that you can earn a very good or living through it. But it really does depend on your, your experience and your education as well. And to further answer that question, I would ask anybody who is interested in a, in a career in agricultural extension to Google the Australasia-Pacific Extension Network. There's a number of resources and examples of careers in extension on that website and some example roles, role descriptions and the type of salaries that you could potentially earn.

David Priem: Thanks, Adrian. Lani, there's nothing more. Is there Maybe one more just before I wrap up?

Lani Houston: Yeah. So I do just have one more and this is perhaps those that haven't got a background. A lot of panel members talked about having a background or with their family on a farm. But what is the way perhaps somebody could build up experience in AgSTEM, stem if they don't necessarily they're not from a farming background or from agricultural background.

Tom McPherson: Yeah, I might jump in here if that's OK. Thanks. I think, I think the biggest thing that's helped me has just to be really curious and ask a lot of questions. And I know it's difficult and, and awkward sometimes, but don't be afraid to reach out to people. I have literally never encountered anyone in the ag industry that has turned me away. Everyone has, has been really willing to help and, and in many cases have gone out of their ways to help me. So, yeah, I'd, I'd just say be curious.

David Priem: Thanks Tom that's great. This one popped up now maybe for Michael. And the same as the question is, did someone is, is there much hesitancy in the industry with adoption of all these new technologies, something like driverless tractors, which will ultimately result in the loss of jobs in small communities, anything around adoption rates? Thanks maybe Michael.

Michael Beer: Yeah. Well, thanks for the question. Look at depending on the technology and the local community setting could say that probably some technologies have faced some hesitancy. Look, I think generally with the area of driverless tractors and those sorts of technologies, they provide advantages to the operations and really assisting labour shortages. So some of those have been quite readily taken up. Probably getting a question for grains, but I think we're trying to unpack more of the understanding of adoption through some extension related projects and research that bit for a bit further. But I would say the human ethics question that has probably now related here does come in with things that probably more related to bioengineering and synthetic biology areas.

David Priem: OK, thanks, Michael. Look, the thing I need to wrap up there unfortunately. Thanks everyone. I hope decision has inspired you to think about working in AgTech.

Thanks to the great team from the Department of Education and TAFE NSW and a big thanks to Orville for doing the behind the scenes work with the production of the event.

Also thanks to the amazing support from AgriFutures Australia, GRDC, Hort Innovation, Meat and Livestock Australia, Tom McPherson, Dr Scott Sleep, Primary Industries Education Foundation Australia and the Royal Agricultural Society.

Please complete the questionnaire which can be accessed by the QR code on your screen. If you would like more information about full or part time work or to learn more about study options, work experience and industry tools, we will stay on for a few more minutes for those that are able to stay.

Otherwise, thank you and have a great day.

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Stephanie: Hi, I'm Steph from Cowra High School.

Callie: Hi, I'm Callie, also from Cowra High School.

Angus: Hi, I'm Angus from Doonside Technology High School,

Stephanie: And we're here today to interview some people about their career paths within the agricultural industry.

Callie: What is something students may not know about the Ag Industry?

Amelia Unthank: The sky's the limit when it comes to careers in Ag, I think. Particularly with the rise of innovation. We need anything from data analytics, like computer science, all the way to marketing, accounting, HR, anything you can think of, anything that you desire, you can apply that in Ag.

Callie: What does your normal day-to-day look like in your job?

Amelia Unthank: My day-to-day Callie is very diverse. We have a bit of a hybrid setup. So I’m in Canberra once a week in the office with the team and then working from home a lot of the other days of the week. But amongst that, we’re often out on the farm collecting samples for our analysis and our product development. So I’m either doing that or I’m behind the desk crunching some numbers, running data analytics, and developing some algorithms.

Angus: What does your job look like day-to-day?

Charles Chow: Well, we get to do a lot of fun things. We’ll be out in the field quite a bit. We’ll work a lot with farmers and all sorts of different industries as well, from councils to mining companies, to day-to-day farmers. And we do a lot of training and educational work as well, so to train up more pilots in the fields.

Rachel Chittick: This is absolutely my dream role. I’ve always loved storytelling. So, personal impact stories, finding out who people are, what they do day-to-day, their life on the ground, and to get that message out to help them in some way or form. So, to be able to do that in the dairy industry it’s absolutely my dream role.

Callie: What skills have you learned in the workplace, and have you been able to apply them to your daily life?

Amelia Unthank: I think the key one that I can apply daily is the communication aspect. Getting on to field days, getting on farms, and speaking to producers and people about what we do, why we do it, and what their needs are on farm, has put me out of my comfort zone. But I think, yeah, it’s been a valuable skill to develop and very helpful both at work and in my daily life.

Angus: What kind of led you down to work in this pathway?

Charles Chow: Yeah, I’ve always had a passion about aviation. Drones just crossed path with me, and I saw the possibility of actually using this sort of technology in agriculture. As my family did have a recreational farm in Western Australia, and that got me, you know, my imagination thinking and go, oh, what about, you know, we can treat some of the current issues with the technologies and we’ll be able to help the farmers do things more efficiently.

Stephanie: Where would you like to see yourself progress in your career?

Rachel Chittick: Definitely stay in Ag. I’ve found my home. I feel so fortunate, so lucky to work in the industry, the organization, and the role that I work in. But I’ve only been with the organization for just under two years, and I’d really like to stay, grow, and develop further in the organization and work with other agencies within Ag. Probably in a higher-level strategic marketing communications role in that farmer-facing comms space. So really highlighting the voice of a farmer and the voice of the Ag industry for the benefit of future progression.

Callie: Why would you recommend a career in agriculture to students?

Amelia Unthank: You’re guaranteed impact day-to-day in your work. Impact not only on the Australian Ag industry and those that work in it, being your farmers, the animals, our country’s land, but also consumers. Basically, everyone in the country who’s consuming the food, the fibres, the products that come out of our industry.

Charles Chow: We need future farmers, and I think the farming population’s reducing. We need to bring our younger generations back into farming. And I think technology is one good way of doing it, and can be profitable as well. I’ve shown them quite a few of our operators examples. They have left school, looking at doing something that’s cool and high-tech, got into Ag drones, and are now making a decent living out of it.

Callie: And last but not least, if you could, what career advice would you have given yourself in your senior years of high school?

Amelia Unthank: I would definitely say, trust the process. I couldn’t have known that I’d be here five years out of school. In Ag, doing something I love and fulfilling my job each day. But I guess there was probably some more practical things I could do when I was in high school, maybe like talking to my careers advisor and that helped me get here with a bit more reassurance rather than just fully trusting the process. I think a combination of both is important.

Callie: Thank you for joining us today for this interesting insight into the agricultural industry.

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