When Gold Coast student Trinity Johnstone realised university was not for her, she ditched her books and set her sights on outback work.
Now agriculture industry stakeholders are hoping more students will follow her lead, thanks to a fee-free initiative aimed at addressing a skills shortage in the field.
"My mum said, 'Well, you like horses so let's find you a job where you can work with horses'," Ms Johnstone said.
"She found station jobs and I was willing to give that a try and I applied for jobs, but I had literally no experience so obviously I didn't get them."
Ms Johnstone decided to enrol in a Certificate III in Rural Operations at the Toowoomba TAFE campus, with hopes of gaining experience.
This year, 180,000 fee-free TAFE places are on offer for courses related to industries with recognised skills shortages such as agriculture.
Agriculture courses on offer include a Diploma of Agriculture, Certificate II in Wine Industry Operations, a Diploma of Conservation and Ecosystem Management, and a Certificate III in Dairy Production.
Industry welcomes fee-free agriculture
Describing the current labour climate as a "workforce crisis", Queensland Farmers' Federation (QFF) chief executive Jo Sheppard welcomed the inclusion of agriculture in the fee-free TAFE placements.
"I think it's definitely one tool that is going to help at the moment because, really, the skills shortage is unprecedented.
"Agriculture needs skilled workers, and we need them now.
"We're seeing shortages across the board from harvest workers, farm production workers, farm managers, supervisors, store people, machine operators," she said.
The labour shortage across agricultural supply chains had seen produce prices skyrocket in supermarkets.
"We are aware of farmers who are significantly reducing or changing what they are planting this season or not planting at all because they're just not confident that they'll be able to source the workforce needed at harvest time to get the crop off," Ms Sheppard said.
Will fee-free courses provide a lifeline?
Ms Sheppard said the fee-free courses will not be a silver bullet to the issue as the initiative is only for 2023.
"We're all very well aware that the problem is quite extensive, and it's going to take a number of different solutions that will collectively address the issue over the short and the long term," she said.
Ms Sheppard said it was important that TAFE delivered training in relevant locations and was accessible to those wanting to work in the sector.
"The simple economics of delivering training where it's needed in ag sometimes doesn't stack up with the current delivery models, which are significantly focused on high volumes of students," she said.
TAFE Queensland teacher Vanessa Cain said the training on offer would be relevant.
"As a TAFE teacher, it is a requirement to have not only the qualification but actually have industry experience," she said.
After growing up on a property in the north-west New South Wales town of Narrabri, Ms Cain now teaches agriculture and rural operations in Toowoomba.
She said she was confident the free courses would not be wasted on people not seriously considering a career in agriculture.
"I genuinely believe that people who are taking the time to enrol in those courses, do have some interest and hopefully they come to the course and fall in love with the ag sector and stay there and contribute," she said.
"We can also offer recognition of prior learning as a pathway to receiving your qualification."
From the Gold Coast to the Kimberley
Ms Johnstone had no prior on-farm experience before enrolling at TAFE.
"It was very hands-on. TAFE has a farm in Warwick, so we'd go out to the farm," she said.
"We would run around on quads and chase after cattle and sheep and plough fields, just anything."
Ms Johnstone hoped other young people would take advantage of the fee-free courses on offer.
"Before studying I hadn't really met anyone who was into agriculture or studied agriculture," she said.
Ms Johnstone was set to achieve her career goal and planned to jet off in March to work at Napier Downs Station in the Kimberley.
"I just want to be a station hand, I want to know everything there is to know because there's so much and I didn't grow up on a station so it's really hard for me to get that unless someone takes me on," she said.
"The advertisement actually asked for experienced station hands and I'm not an experienced station hand. I have a knowledge and skills base, but I'm definitely not experienced, so I'm very lucky."
Fee-free TAFE courses also include in-demand industries including the care sector, technology and digital, hospitality and tourism, construction and sovereign capability.
