Fishing For The Next Wave of Talent: Austral Academy’s NSW Road Trip

Fishing For The Next Wave of Talent: Austral Academy’s NSW Road Trip

Equipped with a slide deck, pull-up banner, two virtual reality headsets, a big bag of merch, and plenty of snacks in tow, Ashley and Sam recently embarked on a four-day road trip through country New South Wales, visiting four schools in four days from Wee Waa to Armidale.

The trip was part of our Austral Academy initiative, launched in June 2022, to promote career opportunities in the fishing industry and (with a bit of luck) identify our next wave of at-sea talent.  

What could a wildcatch fishing company stand to gain from venturing six hours from the coast to promote careers in the fishing industry, we hear you ask? We’d be lying if we said we didn’t ask ourselves the same question when the wheels hit the tarmac in the small town of Moree – our first official stop.

However, we knew going into the trip that the seafood industry has historically had little to no representation in ‘careers conversations’ with young Australians. We also knew that country kids rarely shy away from rolling their sleeves up and getting their hands dirty (both prerequisites for an At Sea career in fishing). 

If that wasn’t enough, we were bolstered by the knowledge that some of our current crew, Skippers, and a man who is 45 years into a career with Austral (CEO David Carter), hail from rural and regional areas around Australia. 

Our primary goal was to connect with and educate the students we met about the operations of a commercial fishing company and what a career at sea could look like – if we taught students one new thing about the fishing industry, then we would have taken a couple steps forward and towards the Austral Academy’s vision.  

 

What we did not expect was just how engaged, enthusiastic, and curious the students at all four schools would be!

Over the course of four days, we visited Wee Waa Public School, Ashford Central School, Inverell High School, and BackTrack Youth Works Armidale. Travelling from one destination to the next, we were treated to some amazing views and scenery of the New South Wales landscape.

At each school, we held 1 – 2 hour facilitations that included an overview of Austral Fisheries, the fishing industry, the importance of sustainable fishing practices, and the career opportunities available through the Austral Academy and our wider industry. Towards the end of each session, we gave the students a chance to try our virtual reality prawn trawling experience – giving students a taste of what it’s like to work at sea on one of Austral’s prawn trawling vessels.

   

The students asked plenty of thoughtful and inquisitive questions about the fishing industry, life at sea, and the training and education opportunities available through the Austral Academy.

Highlights included: 

• “Has anyone ever fallen overboard?”
• “Do you guys catch sharks?”
• “Have any boats ever flipped over in those big waves?”
• “If you guys pay me $300 per hour, I can bait 16,000 hooks in 3 hours. Deal?”

     

Unsurprisingly, the t-shirts, hats, tote bags, and pens we had to give away were a big hit. But the real highlight was the virtual reality prawn trawling experience we brought along. This gave students the chance to see in detail what work and life on a prawn trawler at sea is like, including a virtual prawn sorting game which became a battle between students and schools to achieve the new highest score. Special mention to Flynn of Ashford Central School whose all-time high score of 7200 is still to be beaten.

The final leg of our journey was at an organisation called BackTrack Youth Works, Armidale. BackTrack isn’t your typical ‘school’ or educational institution, which is possibly what made it so memorable. 

“BackTrack was established in Armidale in 2006. Founder Bernie Shakeshaft saw vulnerable young people facing challenges that made it incredibly difficult to connect with their community, participate in education and training, or find employment,” BackTrack’s website reads. “Armidale needed a youth program that could engage young people, help them develop life and work skills, and help them plan their future pathway.” 

One of the key focus areas of the Austral Academy is reaching young people who don’t fit into the traditional schooling system, or who might struggle in a classroom but thrive in the outdoors where they can work with their hands in a team environment. Meeting the BackTrack young people and spending time with them during our session was a special way to finish the trip. 

We’ve since heard back from Nicole, a teacher at BackTrack Armidale, who shared some highlights from the young people since we visited:

• “I think I want to work on a fishing boat so I can go fishing when I’m not fishing.”
• “I would love to have a go at playing that game (the VR prawn sorting game) in real life and seeing how I go.”
• “The big waves on the videos were insane!”
• “I didn’t realise the ocean was that deep” (when talking about how deep we catch toothfish in the Southern Ocean)

Some feedback from BackTrack’s Youth Workers who were in attendance:

• “I really enjoyed the presentation and learnt a lot.”
• “I think I want to go work with Austral Fisheries.” (You can’t have him!!)

“The presentation was a great blend of videos, discussion and allowed for lots of interactions from our Young People which kept them highly engaged, they have been talking about different things from your presentation all week. A great springboard for further investigation and learning. Thanks,” Nicole said.

“Overall, the trip really exceeded our expectations. We enjoyed having the opportunity to connect with young Australians and to hopefully inspire them to consider a career in the fishing industry through the Austral Academy. We’d like to thank each school, its students, and the teachers we met for welcoming us and being so open to learning about Austral Fisheries and the fishing industry. We hope to welcome students from country NSW onboard our vessels in the near future” said Ashley To, HR Officer, Austral Fisheries.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Austral Fisheries and the Austral Academy, you can visit our website at www.australfisheries.com.au/careers for more info.

WATCH the highlights video of the trip below

 

To help scale the Austral Academy, Austral Fisheries partnered with Action4Agriculture to reach schools in the Eastern States through the Action4Youth program. Visit the Action4Youth website for more information.