Land your dream job

The Land Your Dream Job campaign was launched by NZX Agri at Fieldays this week and aims to raise awareness of job opportunities within the primary industries.

At the KPMG Breakfast on Wednesday, Young Country editor Jackie Harrigan told the audience about the campaign which introduces primary industry jobs to kids in schools.

“It’s all about encouraging awareness of the great career opportunities that are in the primary industries.”

Harrigan said Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy was also present at the breakfast addressing the need for 50,000 new people in the industry in interest in the next ten years for the government to meet its growth target, doubling primary industry exports.

Of the 50,000 jobs that they estimate will be in the sector, Harrigan says 32,000 are actually in the support services part of the industry.

“So what we are hoping to do is get in front of urban kids who maybe might have an interest in the science career or a business career or technology engineering and tell them a bit about the primary industries and tell them that there’s lots of great opportunities if you’ve got that sort of degree but then you bolt some agri-sector knowledge on top, that actually makes you really employable in the sector.“

Harrigan said they have built a website, www.landyourdreamjob.co.nz, that shares a lot of career stories of young people in the industry and has profiles of jobs within the industry.

“Also on there is some competitions and lots of resources about where to train and what sort of scholarships there are within the industry, because there’s a lot of money out there for kids to pick up to help them with their education costs.”

Harrigan says that they have just signed a deal with corporate sponsors to sponsor three copies of young country magazine into every high school in the country.

“We want to get that in front of kids so they can read about real people out there in the sector and some of the opportunities that there are.”