women bucking

3 May 2011

 

Young women from the pastoral industry will be aiming to buck the trend as they set their sights on career building and personal development at an innovative two day workshop in Mt Isa next week.

Longreach-based Desert Channels Group (DCG) has developed a course designed specifically to empower women in pastoral roles to identify their potential and take responsibility for career development and opportunities.

DCG Industry Liaison Officer Colleen James said this unique workshop proudly boasts some great presenters across a range of topics seldom on offer in this region or to this particular group of workers.

“During the workshop presenters will offer insights and help develop skills that will enable jillaroos to look at pastoral career paths and identify exactly what they might want to do to achieve their aims at work and in their lives in general,” Colleen said.

“While the beef industry was once a male dominated workplace, there has been a steady increase in female representation over time,” Colleen said. “However, this representation is often short-lived as a lot of young women don’t see opportunities to progress in this line of work.”

“This workshop will be an eye-opener for over 30 young women who may never have had an opportunity like this before or even had the chance to take stock of where they are heading in their careers.”

“The aim is for them to recognise their skills and experiences and how important they are to the industry. We want to work towards stemming the tide of these assets leaving the industry,” Colleen said.

Leading pastoral companies the Australian Agricultural Company, The North Australian Pastoral Company (NAPCO), Kidman and Stanbroke have been quick to embrace the concept nominating a number of their valued staff to attend.

NAPCO’s Human Resource Manager Harmony James said, “This is such a great opportunity for a group of our stockpersons to become better informed and develop the confidence to take control of their future in the industry.”

“This is not mere tokenism,” Ms James said, “These women play an important part in this industry and we want to recognise that as well as encourage them to step up and see a future here.”

“It’s very rare to see this level of investment in our young women and I look forward to seeing the response to this program.”

While agriculture in general seeks constantly to improve on staff retention, the data shows that female leadership remains disproportionately low compared to staff numbers. A 2009 review of leading northern beef companies found that while around 40% of station staff were female, they contributed only 1% to leadership positions in the stock camps.

This workshop is an initiative of the Desert Channels Group and the Queensland Government’s Blueprint for the Bush funded Landholder Support Service Project Program. Further support has been received from the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Meat and Livestock Australia, The North Australian Pastoral Company and Ellerfield Financial Planning.

For more information contact Industry Liaison officer Colleen James at the Desert Channels Group on 07 4652 7826 or 0428 580 998 email: colleen.james@dcq.org.au.