Waikato teachers have the bug – and now they want to pass it on to their students.
Forty science, horticulture and agriculture teachers met recently to look at agricultural science in action with the idea of heading back to the classroom to enthuse their students about the opportunities in the area.
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Photo: flickr.com/photos/liverpoolhls
DairyNZ, the Livestock Improvement Corporation and AgResearch hosted the teachers for the day.
St Paul's Collegiate agribusiness director Kerry Allen needed little convincing about opportunities available to young people in agriculture.
"I wish there were that many opportunities out there when I was a student."
She says the agriculture sector needs a huge range of people including lawyers, accountants, fertiliser reps, scientists and transport workers, not to mention farmers.
Kerry has been helping compile a list of scholarships offered to tertiary students across the primary sector in New Zealand and has found there are $3.5 million worth of scholarships and support available.
She says not all of the scholarships are granted because sometimes no one applies.
"They do have some very specific criteria some of them ... but there are lots of them out there and you just have to go through them and have a look and and see which ones you can apply for.
"A couple of years ago there was a boy from here in Hamilton that applied for a lot of scholarships and got $80,000 worth and mainly because lots of them didn't get applied for ... but he was a very high-quality applicant so he pretty much got every one that he went for," Kerry says.