True Dairy Trainees Targeted in Contest Revamp

True Dairy Trainees Targeted in Contest Revamp

Changes to the 2016 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year competition will give genuine dairy trainees the opportunity to succeed.

National Convenor Chris Keeping says the entry criteria in the dairy trainee competition has been tightened to ensure it caters for young people, who have less experience and qualifications than other potential new entrants to the dairy industry.

“The dairy trainee contest aims to foster and assist new people coming into the industry to gain the skills, knowledge and reputation they need to progress,” Mrs Keeping says.

“The competition has been held since 2008 and has proved incredibly successful in attracting large numbers of entrants. That’s been great. But what we have found is those with maturity, higher qualifications and experience from another sector before entering the dairy industry have had an advantage.

“The changes aim to even out the playing field and make the competition more focused on genuine dairy industry trainees.”

She says the major changes include:

• Restricting the age of entrants so they must be 18 to 25 years (previously up to 30 years)

• Reducing the number of years entrants have been in the industry to three (was up to five)

• Limiting the qualifications an entrant can hold to NZQA Level 4 or equivalent in any field of study.

“We think the changes will make the competition fairer for those young trainees and give them a real opportunity to shine. Those older trainees with higher qualifications or more experience in the industry will be eligible to enter the Dairy Manager of the Year competition,” Mrs Keeping says.

The Dairy Trainee and Dairy Manager competitions are part of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards, which also includes the Share Farmer of the Year competition.

All three competitions have undergone changes for the 2016 awards programme, in entry criteria and in two instances, name. The changes aim to enhance the competitions and enable more people to enter.

More information on the competition changes can be found at www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz. Entries in the 2016 awards open on October 20.

The New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards are supported by national sponsors Westpac, DairyNZ, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra Farm Source, Honda Motorcycles, LIC, Meridian Energy, and Ravensdown, along with industry partner Primary ITO.

ENDS

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