June 10, 2014
Tuesday was graduation day at Growing The Burnett’s Red Earth Meadows farm at Memerambi.
A second group of would-be small farmers were presented with their certificates following the successful completion of their training course.
All were either unemployed or under-employed when they signed up in March.
The graduates have earned a Certificate III in Rural Operations, a nationally recognised qualification and/or certificates for completing shorter courses in food handling and post-harvest operations.
Growing The Burnett organiser Brian Jarvis praised the graduates for all their hard work.
“You’ve all done exceptionally well,” he said. “It was a tight course and hard to complete time-wise.”
Local Employment Co-ordinator Gabrielle Keating, who presented the certificates, said it had been a really good project that had proved again that investment from the Federal Government can show real results.
She thanked the Australian Agricultural College Corporation (AACC) for getting involved in providing some of the training.
The trainees were mentored on-the-job and a registered trainer from the AACC visited regularly to take them through the theory side of the course.
The students combined classroom-style learning with hands-on experience in the Red Earth Meadows farm.
Growing The Burnett’s aim as a social enterprise is to train South Burnett residents in small acreage farming so that locals can obtain genuinely fresh, locally grown foods, and people who want to take up horticulture as a career can make a living from it.
However, these graduates are the last ones the Federal Government will fund under current arrangements as the funding program has now been discontinued.
Related articles:
- Markets Moving To Twilight Zone
- New Farming Skills Take Root
- Last Chance For Small Farmers
- Would-Be Small Farmers Wanted
- Students Put Microscope On Farm
- Growing The Burnett … One Job At A Time
- Locals Star At Mid-Week Markets
- Senator Congratulates Graduates
- Many Hands Make Green Thumbs
- Volunteers Add Some Art
- Horticulture Project Starts Growing
- Calling All Would-Be Horticulturalists
- $66,000 Grant For Horticultural Trainees
- Workshop To Focus On Seed Planting
- Small Farming Draws A Large Audience
- Farming ‘Should Be Fun’
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Attendees at the Graduation were served a “trial run” of the hot food that will be available at the mid week market’s new afternoon/evening time. The verdict was “Excellent!”