From Ag School to International Ag

September 19, 2022

Anna Mackintosh (TAS) in Timor-Leste as part of her Student Award experience.

As part of our ACIAR-funded NextGen project, we will be making a targeted outreach to agricultural schools in 2023!

We hope to interest them in either professional development workshops for their teachers or in a NextGen panel or food security specialist speaker for teachers and students. These will focus on topics in “Development for a Better Future” – our free high school teaching materials on global food and nutrition security issues.

We would like to hear from you if you went to an agricultural school in Australia and went on to study or work in agriculture for development.

It may be that we can involve you in a visit to your old school or in the video we are doing for our presentations at agricultural schools.

One person who went to an ag school is our board member, Dr Richard Sheldrake AM, who went to Hurlstone Agricultural High School, Glenfield, near Sydney. Richard was Director-General of four related government departments in NSW – agriculture, natural resources, industry and investment and primary industries – and maintains his long-term commitment to rural and regional Australia, and to global food security.

“A recent Australian Farm Institute report found there are six jobs to every agriculture graduate in 2022. Well, some of those opportunities are not necessarily at home, but certainly benefit Australian agriculture too,” said Richard.

“It’s great that the Crawford Fund is involved with high school teachers and students, through their teaching materials; teacher workshops; NextGen panels and talks to school students. Hopefully, this will make students more aware of the study and career opportunities in international agriculture which benefit both Australian and global agriculture.”

The Crawford Fund’s NextGen Program has a suite of opportunities for students – events involving young Australians with experience in international agriculture talking about their experiences and career paths; high school teaching materials on significant food and nutrition security issues; student awards to travel and carry out research in developing countries; conference scholarships to learn more about agriculture for development, and volunteering opportunities overseas.

“Please let us know if, like me, you went to an ag high school and ended up studying or working in agriculture for development,” said Richard.

If you’d like more information, contact Cathy Reade, the Crawford Fund’s Director of Outreach and NextGen Program.