Dairy Apprenticeship Programme Celebrates First Birthday

Federated Farmers is wishing happy birthday today to the Federated Farmers Apprenticeship Dairy Programme on its first anniversary.

The pilot programme supported by MBIE, the PrimaryITO and Feds, was launched last year with the intention of finding more Kiwis keen to work in the dairy industry on farm, and keen to upskill into a farming career.

After almost a year Feds is proud to say we’ve had 193 employer expressions of interest, and 98 completed farm charters, enabling employers to enter the programme along with 180 eligible apprentice expressions of interest and 62 apprentices in the programme.

Dairy provides jobs and incomes for over 40,000 workers, not to mention the hundreds of small communities around New Zealand which rely on downstream income from dairy farming.

The dairy sector contributes $7.8 billion to New Zealand’s GDP and players a crucial role in supporting regional economic development but unfortunately the New Zealand labour market hasn't keep place with the growth of the dairy market.

"In dairy farming a good employment workplace will have rosters, modern payroll systems, competitive wages, good houses available to rent - unlike in the city - positive, encouraging employers and lots more," Federated Farmers dairy chair Chris Lewis says.

"In New Zealand we have a strong economy in rural and city, so let’s make sure dairy farming as a career is well regarded and attractive so we can get more young Kiwis working outside on our farms with no Auckland traffic issues, and the only peak hour traffic they experience is taking the herd to the cowshed."

Things You Probably Didn’t Know About Our Dairy Exports:

-New Zealand accounts for 3% of total world production

-New Zealand exports about 95% of its dairy production

-New Zealand exported NZ$ 12.4 billion worth of dairy products in the year ending June 2016

-The top five markets for New Zealand dairy exports are: China, United States, United Arab Emirates, Australia, Japan

-New Zealand's top four dairy export products are: whole milk powder (37%), cheese (12%), skim milk powder (10%), and butter (9%)

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