Australia and New Zealand's top shearing and wool handling training organisations have struck a deal to help combat the global shortage of workers across the sector.
In an industry first, Australian Wool Innovation, along with Australia's largest shearing and wool handling training organisation, SCAA Shearer Wool Handler Training Inc (SCAA SWTI), have signed a joint Memorandum of Understanding with New Zealand's shearing training body, Elite Wool Industry Training NZ.
The MOU aims to tackle the chronic shortage of sheep industry workers, which has seen the price of shearing increase by more than 20 per cent in the past two years.
But the problem has not only been confined to Australia with NZ and northern hemisphere farmers all competing for the same pool of shearing staff.
SCAA SWTI's CEO Glenn Haynes believes working with NZ will lead to better outcomes for both countries.
"The agreement is not a silver bullet for the issue of skills shortages, but it will provide a platform that can align the approach to at least mitigating some of the training issues that both nations are experiencing at the moment," Mr Haynes said.
"The idea is to allow for the training organisations to work together on shearing and wool handler training consistencies, across the Tasman."
He said the transient, or impermanent nature of the workforce, is seeing ever increasing numbers of shearers and wool handlers travelling across both sides of the ditch for work experience.
"We can train as many people as we like, but it's not going to fix the spring shearing demand which is the peak," Mr Haynes said.
It's just common sense....why don't we touch base with each other and create a pathway to come across
- Glenn Haynes
"If you go back the last three-months there hasn't been a shearer shortage and then you go into the spring and all of a sudden there is a shearer shortage.
"How do you find people that are experienced professionals for three months and then have nothing for them to do?
"It's the way the seasons work - there are peaks and then there are troughs of nothing.
"NZ is exactly the same, but their peak seasons are different to ours - our peak season is the spring and NZ's peak season is finished before the spring so they have the workers who are available to come across to Aus.
"It's just common sense....why don't we touch base with each other and create a pathway to come across."
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He said the agreement will see consistency within techniques.
"When we send workers over there, or they come to Australia, although we are all doing the same job, we are doing it a lot differently," Mr Haynes said.
"NZ's wool operation is a lot different to Australia's because they are mostly crossbreds.
"This agreement will enable us to set them up when they come over here and show them the the pattern that we teach in Australia, and visa versa.
"It will ensure when young kiwis come to Australia to shear, their shearing pattern and technique will be consistent and align with what the Australia market requires.
"But it will also ensure that young Aussies will have a better understanding of the NZ crossbred shearing techniques as will the wool handlers."
He said with the level and experience of the trainers involved in the combined organisations, the knowledge that can be shared from both sides can only be beneficial for the industry.
The secretary for the Shearing Contractors Association (SCAA), Jason Letchford, said he was excited about the additional benefit of being able to facilitate the transition of learner shearers and wool handlers between the countries.
"It will help to accommodate the seasonal cycles and better ensure consistency of work for new entrants to the industry, an issue that has been the Achilles-Heel for learner shearers in the past," Mr Letchford said.
AWI's head of Shearer Training, Craig French has supported the initiative from the onset and sees the additional benefits from working with our NZ counterparts.
"The shearer and wool handler shortage is an international problem and therefore we need to take a broader approach to addressing it," Mr French said.
"Over the next three years, Australian wool growers will invest more than $10 million into shearer and wool handler training.
"We are best to have an agreement with our Trans-Tasman counterparts, to ensure this investment is not one-sided and in sync with what is happening in NZ.
"This MOU will allow this process to happen more easily."
