Employees’ experiences of fruit industry career pathways
Overview
The availability of an appropriately skilled workforce is increasingly recognised as a critical element for success in Australian agriculture, and has been recognised as a challenge for the Goulburn Murray fruit industry. A previous project began the task of understanding the issues affecting the demand for and supply of skilled workers, drawing on the perspectives of employers in the industry. This project seeks to complement and expand the earlier work by investigating employees’ experiences of the barriers to and enablers of successful career paths in horticulture.
Project Summary
The Goulburn Murray region is a premier location for fruit production in Australia, and the industry is a significant generator of regional wealth and employment. The industry is facing challenges and opportunities in response to changes in the domestic fruit processing industry and the emergence of new, highly competitive, export markets. It will need to develop and retain an appropriately-skilled workforce to respond to these challenges and opportunities. The challenges that the industry currently faces in accessing the people and skills it needs have been documented previously in the Fruit Industry Roadmap (RMCG & GVFGSWG 2013) and the Food Futures Innovation Cluster (Catalyst Exchange 2015).
Previous research in the fruit industry in the Goulburn Murray region has explored the broad structure of the industry’s workforce, including the number and type of workers on orchards of different sizes and typical roles and their duties. But as yet we know very little about the career paths that workers follow through the industry, or about their employment experiences.
Aim:
This project aims to improve our understanding of the career pathways and employment experiences of permanent employees in the Goulburn Murray fruit industry. The specific research question to be addressed is:
What enablers and barriers to successful career paths do permanent employees in the Goulburn Murray horticulture industry experience?
Methodology:
These aims will be addressed through survey research with permanent employees working on Goulburn Murray orchards. Survey questions will focus on employees’ career journeys and job experiences.
Project Duration
March 2018 - March 2019
Research Group Leader/Key contact
Dr Michael Santhanam-Martin
Other Personnel
Dr Lisa Cowan, Agriculture Victoria, Dr Roger Wilkinson
Contact Details
mpmartin@unimelb.edu.au
Publications
Santhanam-Martin, Michael. (2019). Career Journeys and Job Experiences in the Goulburn-Murray Fruit Industry. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.21009.38247.
Partnership Details
University of Melbourne and Department of Economic Development, Jobs, Transport and Resources - Innovation Seed Fund for Horticulture Development
Image: Research to help understand the barriers to and enablers of successful careers in production horticulture
