Rural school students take tractor driving lessons to fill skills gap
An ageing population of farmers and a lack of time for young people to learn practical skills has led to an increasing amount of rural courses at the Mount Compass Area School, about 60 kilometres south of Adelaide.
The school is nearing the end of its first year running a TAFE course that teaches students how to drive a tractor - joining pre-existing rural courses in chainsaw safety and shearing.
TAFE instructor Peter Conrick said times were changing and young people were not privileged with the same practical experiences as previous generations.
He said young people did not have the time to learn skills that once would have been learnt on the farm.
"I can remember walking behind sheep from about two years of age, so I had a very long apprenticeship," Mr Conrick said.
"That opportunity doesn't exist today. You've got to shorten your apprenticeship down, so the only way to do it is to be able to offer some training courses."
Mr Conrick said the course included negotiating orange posts that replicate life on-farm.
"I've told the students that these orange posts are either a gate post or mum's prized peach tree or the corner post on the hayshed and things like that, so they are not allowed to knock them down," he said.
The students were also required to pick up and deposit bales of hay, negotiate tight turns and demonstrate the practical safe operation of a tractor.
Opportunities for students without farming backgrounds
The course was designed to implement a more uniform standard of training, but it was also about ensuring the future of agriculture did not rely solely on students from farming families.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 2012 the median age of farmers was 53 and almost a quarter of the country's farmers were over the age of 65.
In other industries, the amount of workers aged over 65 averaged at 3 per cent.
Mt Compass Area School teacher Kiara Edwards said the backgrounds of aspiring young farmers was changing.
"It used to be those kids that grow up driving from the age of four, or whatever it is, and they were the farmers," she said.
"But I see so many students coming through that have never been exposed to agriculture, especially in our Middle School area, and they just learn to love it.
"They just learn the passion and drive."
Student Josh Whittlesea said despite a lot of younger people preferring to "sit behind a computer all day", some would rather be outside "doing something".
Another student, Natelle Baes, agreed. She said the influence of computers and technology had left many people uneducated about food production.
"Not many kids really know or respect just how much effort goes into the food that we eat," she said.
